After last year's stop due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, the Research Day of 8 November, established by the Lombardy Region and dedicated to the memory of Umberto Veronesi is now back and open to the public. The aim is to highlight the contribution of scientific and technological knowledge to economic and social progress and to improving the quality of life. 

Once again, the event will take place in the extraordinary setting of Milan's Teatro alla Scala, now running at full capacity. For this fourth edition, the theme is Environmental Sustainability.

 

Amidst music, scenarios of innovation and guests - such as explorer Chiara Montanari, the first Italian to hold the role of expedition leader in Antarctica - the heart of the event will, as always, be the award ceremony for the 1 million euro ‘Lombardia è Ricerca’ international prize, the ‘Lombardy Nobel Prize’ awarded to three distinguished scholars for the 2020-2021 edition.

 

Taking the stage will be Pierre Joliot, biologist, Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France; Marcella Bonchio, Professor of Chemical Sciences at the University of Padua; and Markus Antonietti, Director of the Institute for Colloids and Interfaces at the Max Planck Institute. They are responsible for research on natural photosynthesis first, and then on materials and technologies for artificial photosynthesis, which collectively lay out promising and important scenarios for clean energy production.

 

Sign up to attend the Regione Lombardia Research Day: click here.

 

The doors of the theatre will open to the public at 9.30 am.

 

As is now tradition, it will start with a short musical tribute by singer Giuliano Sangiorgi and keyboardist Andrea Mariano. At the last edition of Sanremo, the musicians chose to perform in sustainable clothes.

 

The stage will also host a number of innovations that improve our daily lives: such as Too Good to Go, the anti-waste app for selling food at reduced prices that would otherwise be thrown away because it is unsold; or the benches with wireless recharging by Pradella Sistemi of Bergamo, which is already looking to the Smart Cities of tomorrow. And again, the interfaces to enable ‘intelligent’ environments with new services for citizens, businesses and public administration of BASE 5G, one of the projects financed by the Research and Innovation Call Hub of the Lombardy Region.

 

Among the authorities present, the Minister for Universities and Research Maria Cristina Messa, the President of the Lombardy Region Attilio Fontana and the Councillor for Education, Universities, Research, Innovation and Simplification Fabrizio Sala. 

Also present will be the President of the Veronesi Foundation, Paolo Veronesi, the editor-in-chief of Corriere della Sera, Luciano Fontana, the Corriere della Sera columnist and editorial director of Corriere Innovazione, Massimo Sideri, who will conduct the interview with the three winners, as well as the President of the Prize Jury, Andrea C. Ferrari, Professor of nanotechnology at Cambridge University and one of the leading experts in graphene, an innovative material with a thousand properties.

 

It is their task to reflect on the horizons that research and innovation can open up for the recovery of post-pandemic territories, as a lever for economic and social development, in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda, also adopted by the European Union with precise targets to be achieved in terms of digital transformation and energy transition.

 

The Day will be hosted by Alessia Ventura. Gerry Scotti, research ambassador for the Lombardy Region, will also be present.

 

The event, which will also be streamed on corriere.it, is scheduled to end at 12.30 pm.