The Magnificent Rector Prof. Eugenio Guglielmelli inaugurates the 30th academic year
All Authorities, Magnificent Rectors and Rectors, Delegates and Delegates, Presidents and Directors of Institutions and Research Bodies, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Teachers, Students and Families, Dear Guests.
I would like to extend my warmest welcome to everyone and thank you for your presence at the Inauguration of the Academic Year 2022-2023 of theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma.
Today we will have the pleasure and pride of starting the thirtieth academic year since the foundation of our University. I would like to express special thanks to the entire University community present here and to all those who have worked in the past for the commitment and dedication shown over the years.
Our thoughts go first of all to those "first" teachers and professionals who gave birth, in 1993, to the academic and welfare project then called "Campus Bio-Medico University Institute". And it also goes - today - to all those who, with different roles and responsibilities, make this extraordinary "educational adventure" possible every day.
In particular, a sincere thanks to the Board of Directors, to the Academic Senate, to the Chief Executive Officer-General Director, to the Managers, to the Chaplaincy and to all the technical-administrative staff who contribute with their daily commitment to making our University grow.
A special thought to the Rectors who preceded me: to the first two who passed away, Pietro Bucci (chemist, Scuola Normale Superiore, one of the founders and Rector of the University of Calabria) and Giulio Marinozzi (physician of human anatomy), and to last three Rectors with us here today, whom I thank for their presence, Vincenzo Lorenzelli (chemist, President of the Ligurian Academy of Science and Letters, Italian record-breaking swimmer athlete), Andrea Onetti Muda (professor of pathological anatomy, director of IRCCS OPBG) e Raffaele Calabrò (professor of cardiology, president of the IPE Foundation-Institute for Research and Educational Activities and member of the National Committee for Bioethics of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers).
Thanks to all the faculty, to the Deans of the Departmental Faculties, to the Presidents of the Degree Courses, to the Research Coordinators, to the Delegates and of course to male and female students, true protagonists of our University, with their passion, courage, liveliness and curiosity.
Special thanks to the Board of Directors, to the Chief Executive Officer-General Manager Eng. Paolo Sormani, to the Scientific Director Prof. Vincenzo Denaro, to the entire Management Board and to all the health and nursing staff of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital Foundation who daily "takes care" of the patient, helping him to experience suffering and fragility as an experience of dignity and love.
A special thought also to all Institutions and Associations that make up the mosaic that we define as the "Campus System": the two promoters (Campus Bio-Medico Spa, the Campus Bio-Medico Association; with over 160 total members), the Biomedical University Foundation, the Amici Campus Biomedico Onlus Association, the Alberto Sordi Foundation as well as the "Campus Sharing" Student Association, the Sports Association and the newly established Campus Bio-Medico Investment Holding Srl.
But - beyond the juridical articulations - all these bodies that make up the so-called "Campus System" are the expression of a single educational and cultural project that finds its lifeblood in the founding teaching of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo. A subject in which different souls and components coexist, but which acts in a coordinated and unified manner, since it has a single strategy, a single "mission", a single "vision" and finds its inspiration in the same founding roots.
The "claim" of the thirty-year logo speaks of "deep roots" and is an opportunity to rediscover the identity of our University and the values of our Institution.
In 1993, Blessed Alvaro del Portillo said during the Inauguration Mass of our first academic year: "A university that institutionally proposes itself to offer a Christian contribution to the development of culture must ensure that all knowledge converges in the selfless service to the person and therefore to society".
The "centrality of the person" was, and still is today, the distinctive feature ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, which finds expression in the attention to students, in the desire to offer an "integral education" that goes beyond technical and professional skills to help each student's personality mature in a spirit of service, humanity and solidarity. A training "global” because it is aimed at students who are “citizens of the world”, a world they seek to transform and improve to make it more welcoming and truer through culture and the unity of knowledge. A centrality that is aimed at teachers so that they are "Masters of life" capable of supporting the student in the training path of professional, intellectual and moral growth. And which finds in personal tutoring – a pillar since the origins of our University - its highest expression because it involves both those who receive and those who give training in a process of mutual enrichment. And I cannot fail to remember with gratitude a Master of our University, an example of availability and altruism, a tireless person for his attention to the profession and to students who was the beloved professor for all of us. Sergio Morini Full Professor of Anatomy, Rector's Delegate for Tutoring and Vice-Dean of the Departmental Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. I like to remember a fundamental message of his: “Teaching is a great responsibility for which preparation and passion, humility and dedication are needed, but above all there is a need for coherence in life. Even in the most technical subjects, giving depth and body, sense and meaning to the explanations, it is precisely the unity between being a Teacher and being a Person that increases the Master's esteem and authority."
The centrality of the person is to develop scientific research with a high social impact that has repercussions on society and the territory to offer an answer to the great challenges of our time.
Centrality of the person has found - and still finds today - declination in health and care dimension to re-propose a medicine attentive to the needs of the patient, advanced and open to innovation, but always endowed with an authentic human and ethical dimension.
The centrality of the person is development of technologies that collaborate and support with the human component, for the safety, health, well-being and quality of life of all citizens in all social and working contexts. The choice of the new types and organizations of work, the new job tasks and the related necessary skills must take into account which roles and responsibilities it is necessary to maintain or assign in an innovative way to the Person, without risking excessive marginalization of the human component for purely quality reasons productivity, efficiency and economic value.
Centrality of the person is also the respect for the environment, attention to sustainability, development of an ecological awareness which allows us to approach our "common home" with a sense of responsibility and amazement - as Professor Marcella Trombetta.
Finally, the centrality of the person is also made explicit in ours gender budget plan for the promotion and achievement of full equality, starting with our student community, already very populated by our female students and which aims to enhance the participation of all people in the University's activities, and in general to create a university environment that is as integrative as possible and capable of accommodating the specificities of each person, with particular attention to family support, in all its components, and identifying and promoting concrete measures to harmonize professional commitments and personal life.
The history of our first 30 years is an extraordinary and coherent journey with this approach centered on the person, with a REVERSE-BASED approach on clinical, translational and basic research and innovation: from the birth of a Departmental Faculty of Medicine and Surgery integrated with the General Hospital, to the evolution already in the first decade with a Departmental Faculty of Engineering and in the third decade with a Faculty of Science and Technology for Sustainable Development and OneHealth, through an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach of great mutual contamination and cross-fertilization.
Training, care and assistance, technology, Il, in a broad sense also ethical-social not only economic, are the key words of this path, always having the person as a point of reference. "Science for Man", the payoff that has accompanied us for 30 years, summarizes precisely the attempt to reunite scientific knowledge with the humanistic one, to underline the primacy of the person over science and technology.
During these 30 years together we have seen our University grow steadily, with over 5000 alumni, many of which maintain a close relationship with the University, currently 14 degree programmes, including the last three taught in English; Medicine and Surgery started three years ago and two more launched in this academic year: MedTech and Biomedical Engineering. These two new courses launched confirm the interdisciplinary nature of our University and the drive towards internationalisation.
To date we have 2500 students followed by over 400 personal tutors (about 1 every 6 students). 94,3% of our students have found a job five years after graduating (against 89% of the national average), placing us among the top 10 Italian universities for employment of graduates.
Our students have the opportunity to continue the third level professional training course also thanks to the 4 PhD courses of which we are coordinators and administrative headquarters, of which 1 of national interest on Artificial Intelligence for Health and Life Sciences and 3 others ranging from biomedical sciences, bioengineering and intelligent systems, to sustainable development. We also join various other national doctorates and promote the development of a Postgraduate Training School, theUCBM Academy, which can increasingly contribute to continuous training to be in line with the needs of the world of work.
The positioning of the University on the national and international research scene has become increasingly consolidated. The results of the last VQR confirmed the solidity of our Departmental Faculties, now divided into over 50 Research Units.
The research hasn't stopped in the last 3 years which have been very complex for everyone, indeed our researchers have contributed to the advancement of knowledge for cope with the Covid-19 and in many other sectors.
The growth of quality and quantity of our research activities is demonstrated both by our scientific production whose impact factor in 2022 increased by 47% compared to 2020 and also by the many research projects funded in recent years with a average success rate on competitive tenders over the three-year period of 20% (above the national average) and with a fivefold growth in funding raised compared to the last decade, in 2022 equal to over 20% compared to 2020 and in total more than doubled for the Campus system, considering that also the Policlinico Foundation UCBM in its first year it has achieved excellent results.
Among the research activities developed in recent years, the research activities developed in collaboration with INAIL, for which I thank all the leaders present here. Over the years they have been developed over 20 projects on issues related not only to upper limb prosthetics with advanced interfaces to restore proprioceptive and tactile perception to the amputee in collaboration with the INAIL Prosthesis Center in Vigorso di Budrio, but also to occupational medicine and safety, preventive medicine and cybersecurity with the Department of Medicine, Epidemiology, Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (Tell MEILA) and all the other INAIL structures interested in research and innovation, with approaches to high environmental and economic sustainability and high integration and social accessibility.
The increasingly consolidated collaborations with INAIL have a strong strategic importance for our University, in particular for the full sharing of a mission of research and innovation centered on the person, as well highlighted by Holy Father Pope Francis in the audience held with INAIL last March 9: "Caring for the quality of work, as well as for places and transport, is essential if we want to promote the centrality of the person".
The University has also fully understood, and in synergy with the Policlinico Foundation UCBM, the opportunities of National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the Complementary National Plan, which sees us in a team with a national critical mass of historical and strategic value.
The University participates in the National Agritech Centers (coordinated by Federico II University), and by Biodiversity (coordinated by the CNR), al FAIR Extended Partnership coordinated by the CNR), the Rome Technopole innovation ecosystem (coordinated by La Sapienza, with all the state universities of Lazio and the LUISS). As regards the complementary national plan of the MUR, we participate in the project Fit for Medical Robotics, coordinated by the CNR, with scientific co-leadership of SSSA and which also has INAIL, IIT, the Policlinico Foundation as partners UCBM and the IRCCS Don Gnocchi Onlus Foundation.
In recent years, the commitment to the third mission, integration and social impact, both from the point of view of valorising research results and for activities with a high social impact. We have to date over 40 patents, of which about 40% inter-faculty and about 55% in co-ownership with companies and other research institutions. In 2022 the new spin-off Move To Zero to the already 2 other participated spin-offs (Brains Innovations and Heremos) for a total of 8 spin-offs founded starting from 2014. The participation of the University in the share capital of the spin-offs confirms the growing attention towards sustainable development issues, as evidenced by the establishment of the CBM-IH.
Particular attention has been paid to public engagement initiatives and high social impact such as the consolidated participation in the European Researchers' Night, in which we open our facilities to the public, also with laboratory activities and promotion and awareness courses aimed at the local population to obtain and maintain a healthy lifestyle, various initiatives with high schools, not only aimed at orientation, but also at the promotion of responsible attitudes in the field of digitalisation, the protection of human health and the care of the "common home". There are also many university cooperation initiatives in developing countries thanks to the promotion of a spirit of solidarity among students, teachers and health personnel which translates into work, knowing how to "put one's professional competence at the service of the person and the common good" .
Great challenges await us for the future so that the University can play a leading role in the conception and implementation of large-scale projects that aim to solve global challenges on sustainable development.
We are designing didactic paths based on interdisciplinary approaches, research-based & problem-based learning, as a necessary condition to promote innovation in the didactic offer and in the methods of delivering courses to the student component at all levels. This approach will also integrate the best possible alignment with the use of advanced technological tools to support teaching activities and with the promotion and participation in projects for the development of new teaching methods and tools.
Science and Technology offer important opportunities for formal and informal teaching and learning systems that are increasingly accessible, engaging, personalized and effective. New training methodologies and tools must be accessible and scalable to ensure social cohesion and stability. Teachers and students must be trained in the use of new technologies in ways that give relevance to the impact and social equity of these new approaches, reducing the risk of students' access to universities being reduced. The multi-interdisciplinary STEAM-based integration will be fundamental (also with the economic and social sciences) to promote continuous training increasingly oriented towards critical thinking and creativity of students and researchers, also with international experiences that provide solid solve global problems.
It is also dedicated to the orientation of future students RomeCup2023 (ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY FOR HUMANITY - Artificial intelligence and human intelligence. The crucial challenges for a better world), an event organized annually by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, this year hosted at our University from 3 to 5 May, in direct collaboration with all universities CRUL with the expected participation of over 3000 students of first and second level secondary schools and also of primary schools.
We are investing in the strengthening and promotion of internationalization at all levels, through the inclusion in the staff of human resources from foreign academic institutions of excellence, as in the case of the chair financed by the Intesa San Paolo Group which led to the selection of the prof. Leandro Pecchia from Warwick University; the definition of strategic alliances and the activation of wide-ranging research projects in collaboration with foreign universities and research bodies, the attraction of foreign students, also through the activation of collaboration agreements with universities of interest for the development of strategic programs of our University, the activation of second and third level and higher education courses with joint qualifications with foreign universities and research and training institutes.
We are strengthening collaborations with industry to enhance our research results, also by investing in the culture of innovation, in a modern perspective of Open Innovation.
The alliance strategy between Experimental Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, the connection with the industrial world and the distinctive value approach of our University will be fundamental to making our contribution to global challenges of high social relevance with the aim of maximizing their impact in the long run, rather than the direct return, economic or otherwise, in the short term.
Last October I attended, with our vice-president Alessandro Pernigo, at the Science Technolgoy for Society World Forum in Kyoto where the leaders of the main international organizations and governments, universities, research institutions, industries participated together with many Nobel Prize winners, including the Nobel Prize for Economics, Joseph Stiglitz, who in his speech underlined that "it is necessary to ensure that the progress of science and new technologies actually improve well-being, that concerted public efforts are needed at all levels to maximize the benefit of science and technology and to contain their damage , and that the world simply cannot rely on the markets”.
Further fundamental contributions for the correct setting of research and innovation in these areas of high relevance and priority in this historical moment will certainly be made available by the STS Forum Event on Green Transition, Biodiversity & Sustainability, an important international event that we plan to organize by first half of June together with the CNR, which this year celebrates its hundredth year since its foundation and which will present its strategic relaunch plan, to be shared with the strategies of all the Italian and foreign universities and bodies that will be involved, starting from CRUL universities.
The activation of our youngest Departmental Faculty focused on these topics of Science and Technology for Sustainable Development and OneHealth is certainly an important growth opportunity for our University, a topic that has a high priority in our strategic plan. The European Union, as often mentioned by the European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel also at the STS Forum in Kyoto, considers it very important to have value-based approaches to science and technology, which can be fundamental drivers for development and prosperity. Collaboration between different disciplines - not silos - between researchers from different countries can create important opportunities to anticipate needs for future challenges and be increasingly resilient.
I conclude by recalling that the issue of sustainability is not only a topic of great relevance and urgency, but is first of all an ethical issue, and the conservation of the environment and of creation is an element of our values on which we must all commit ourselves, like Prof . Marcella Trombetta, Professor of Chemical Foundations for Engineering, whom I sincerely thank for accepting the role of new Dean of the Departimental Faculty of Science and Bio-Technology, will illustrate in his inaugural address, following the formal launch of our thirtieth academic year.
Thank you all for your attention, with the conviction that you have motivated your interest in being present at our University also at future events, in particular of this special year of the thirtieth anniversary, and that you have provided ideas that can inspire the development path, which we want to carry out in team with the Campus System: only together can we aspire to obtain the best results.
