The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT) and Politecnico di Milano will work for three years to improve infrastructure maintenance and management and develop the country’s connectivity.
The agreement, signed by Minister Paola De Micheli and the Rector of Politecnico di Milano, Ferruccio Resta, includes a ministerial funding of approximately €2,000,000. The project’s General coordinator will be Giuseppe Catalano, the MIT Mission Technical Structure Manager. Giovanni Azzone, professor, and former rector of Politecnico di Milano, has been appointed as Scientific Coordinator.
Rector Ferruccio Resta said:
It is a priority to guarantee the country a modern infrastructure. The agreement signed today between the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and Politecnico di Milano meets the need for modernisation and innovation to guarantee a gateway to Europe, make the Italian system competitive, provide services, safety and liveability solutions for Italians.
The project will be developed according to four strategic macro-areas:
Urban rebirth (Scientific Coordinator Stefano Boeri, Politecnico di Milano)
Analysing the overall picture of urban regeneration (objectives, impact, and financial coverage), understanding its relations with the regions and monitoring its implementation.
Monitoring of long-term maintenance plans for bridges, viaducts, and tunnels (Scientific Coordinator Marco Belloli, Politecnico di Milano)
Defining guidelines for the design of road infrastructure monitoring systems (bridges, viaducts, and tunnels) and for the standardisation of data analysis, transmission, and maintenance systems. Defining the methods used to incorporate these tools into best maintenance practices.
Experiments in the smart road and autonomous and connected vehicle sector (Scientific Coordinator Francesco Braghin, Politecnico di Milano)
The potential of safety and environmental impact of smart roads, electric mobility and autonomous and connected vehicles will be analysed, to define pilot projects in various urban areas of the country.
Analysis of strategic investment plans and programmes for transport and logistics infrastructure and verification of consistency with European programmes and initiatives (Scientific Coordinators Pierluigi Coppola and Fabio Pammolli, Politecnico di Milano)
The aim is to analyse the infrastructure development framework (objectives, impact, and financial coverage), monitor its implementation and understand its connections with the continental evolutionary perspective.
Resta added:
Analysis, design, and experimentation of innovative solutions are the cornerstones of the agreement for which Politecnico di Milano provides its expertise – based on the role and impact that research and innovation can have on the region’s development.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, in line with the Government guidelines and the European Green New Deal, pursues a new growth strategy based on environmental, economic and social sustainability. Synergies with the academic world, through research support and student training, are this strategy’s key elements. Among the agreement aims there is the funding of research grants, PhD scholarships and grants for A level researchers, to strengthen the Politecnico scientific activity and the impact on the country, particularly on issues related to logistics and green infrastructure.
I thank this extraordinary university for today’s agreement and also for what we will still do together in the future. In Italy we have many places of expertise such as the Politecnico di Milano that allow us to be a great industrial country. Today the Ministry is promoting an innovative initiative that I strongly wanted and that allows us to share the knowledge already developed by the Politecnico with those of our office, through an exchange of experiences. With this agreement we also transform our vision of the social role of infrastructures into training opportunities for many young students. Starting from our plan on the quality of living, from the approach to the topic of infrastructures which aims to enhance all the technology targeted at safety. And then, the great challenge of environmental sustainability. We are hungry for human resources and skills to match and the Politecnico can respond to this need of the whole world of infrastructure and transport, even more so after the severe test of the epidemic.
stated Minister Paola De Micheli.
