BOLOGNA (ITALPRESS) – Designing, planning and building sport and luxury boats using innovative materials and technologies. The master’s degree course in Nautical Engineering will start in the next academic year (2024-2025) at the Forlì Campus of the University of Bologna, the first in Emilia-Romagna and among the first in Italy, created to respond to a demand for high-level professionalism and skills increasingly requested by the nautical industry and the market. The course will focus on the shipbuilding of high-quality pleasure boats, a typical excellence of the Adriatic shipyards. The project, objectives and resources allocated to finance it were presented at a press conference in the Council Room of the Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì by representatives of the ‘team’ who saw the public and private working side by side in a fruitful work, making it possible to transform an idea, strongly awaited and desired by the territory, into reality. Present for the Emilia-Romagna Region were councilors Vincenzo Colla (Economic Development and Green Economy) and Paola Salomoni (University and Research); for the University of Bologna, professors Claudio Melchiorri, delegate of the Rector for Relations with companies and industrial research, and Alessandro Talamelli, contact for the Nautical Engineering Course; the director of human resources Ferretti Spa Andrea Brasini, the president of the Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì Foundation Maurizio Gardini, the mayor of Forlì Gianluca Zattini and the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Romagna Carlo Battistini.
One of the peculiarities of this project, which can count on a total funding of almost 7 million euros (exactly 6,857,900) concerns the presence, alongside the University of Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna Region, of key players in the area: Ferretti Spa, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Forlì, the Municipality of Forlì and the Chamber of Commerce of Romagna have decided to contribute with their own resources. The course, which the Region will finance with 1.5 million for the first three years, is the winning project of the call for proposals whose outcome was recently approved by a resolution of the Regional Council. The call for proposals was part of the path traced by regional law 2 of 21 February 2023 designed to attract and retain talent: highly specialized people who can find a job, their own professional or research space, or undertake a path of further advanced training in Emilia-Romagna. Among the objectives to be pursued, as indicated in Article 6 of the same law, the support, including financial, to universities, research institutions and other entities of the regional ecosystem of research and innovation, the promotion of initiatives that, within the framework of the academic offer of the regional system, favor the discovery, creation and valorization of highly specialized talents in line with the areas of the regional strategy of smart specialization. The course will develop various skills that are connected to some of the production areas indicated in the strategy, in particular those involving means of transport, mechanics and engineering services, analysis and design, innovation of materials, manufacturing 4.0, sustainable and innovative mobility and motoring, digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data. To the 1.5 million made available by the Region, 2,362,900 euros from the University of Bologna must be added, as well as a total contribution of 2,995,000 euros from the other co-financiers who, together with the University and the Region, will be part of a control room, called to meet periodically to monitor the results of the new educational initiative. In addition to being co-financiers, each member will be called upon to play a role related to their own peculiarities. The Municipality of Forlì (665 thousand euros of investment) will be called upon on the one hand to monitor the needs of the territory and the business system, on the other to prepare services, support and facilities in order to make the city attractive for students. The Chamber of Commerce of Romagna (665 thousand euros), having an overall vision of the dynamics of the economy and employment in Romagna, will be able to give relevant indications regarding the updating of professional profiles and job opportunities. Another 665 thousand euros will be made available by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Forlì, an ideal partner to support the start and development of the educational initiative given that it regularly works in collaboration with the local community represented by the social and health network system, university research, and cultural and economic promotion. Ferretti Spa has contributed to defining the professional profiles, job opportunities and training plan, and will actively participate in the teaching, illustrating company case studies in the classroom and activating projects for laboratory activities, internships and theses. Its financial contribution will be one million euros. – Photo: Press Office of the Emilia-Romagna Region – (ITALPRESS). col4/com 01-Jul-24 13:55 .
