1 - UNIVERSITY OF PISA (UNIPI) - ITALY
ROLE - COORDINATOR
1 - UNIVERSITY OF PISA (UNIPI) - ITALY
ROLE - COORDINATOR
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The University of Pisa was founded in 1343. It is one of the most renowned universities in Italy consisting of 20 Departments, with high level research centers in the sectors of agriculture, physics, computer science, engineering, human and veterinary medicine. According to international rankings, UNIPI ranks 133rd (in the top 20%) in Europe and 7th in Italy. UNIPI has participated in 206 European projects under Horizon 2020 and other European programs (during the last European program cycle, i.e., from 2014 to 2020), involving total funding of €68.3m. It has coordinated 51 European projects, involving total funding of €30.3m. In AGROFIG UNIPI is represented by four different teams of Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (DAFE).
- PAGE (Pisa Agricultural Economics) team has been working for years to understand and promote the transition towards sustainable and resilient agri-food systems, coordinating projects with the involvement of stakeholders linked to food value chain as H2020 DIVINFOOD or EU Horizon GRANULAR. The topics addressed by the research group include the development of participatory methodologies in the analysis of food systems and “value chains” in agri-food systems, identifying information asymmetries and the impacts on the sustainability of the different supply chains.
This team will participate mainly to collection of data on agroforestry adoption in Italy (task1.1), in the organization of a Living lab with stakeholders in Italy (task 1.2), and to establish links with the policy administration (task1.3).
-the team of Agricultural Genetics has expertise in plant structural genomics, plant species genotyping using molecular markers, molecular biology, and bioinformatics
Recently this team coordinated the project FIGGEN where, following a participatory approach with the involvement of stakeholders, about 300 fig genotypes from Spanish, Turkish, Tunisian collections. have been characterized at genotypical and phenotypical level. Its tasks in AGROFIG are project coordination (WP0), genotyping analysis of fig cultivars (Task3.2), communication and dissemination activities (WP4).
--the team of Agronomy has expertise in agroecology and diversified cropping systems, achieved through the introduction of varietal mixtures, intercropping and cover crops in organic and IPM agriculture. It has recently expanded its interest to agroforestry systems, through the implementation of both long-term (e.g. ARNINO Long-Term Experiment, started in 2017 at the “Enrico Avanzi” Agro-environmental Research Center of the University of Pisa on an area of approximately 40 ha) and short term field experiments to test the adaptability of different herbaceous species to real and simulated agroforestry conditions. Particular attention has always been paid to the effects of cropping systems on soil fertility, with particular attention to the dynamics of soil organic matter and the potential for mitigating emissions of climate-altering gases into the atmosphere.
Its task is to contribute to setup a demonstrative site of agroforestry in Italy and to measure parameters related to production, ecosystem services, climate mitigation and soil health (tasks 2.1, 2.2). In addition it will deal with financial aspects of agroforestry system organized in the demonstrtion site (task2.4).
-the UNIPI Microbial group has expertise in studies on the role of microorganisms in primary production, preservation of soil biological diversity, fertility and plant nutrition, participating to projects focused on biotechnologies for sustainable agriculture as well as on the use of microbiological agents as biostimulants and biofertilizers. Recently is involved in project focused on the characterization of soil microbioma through metagenomics approaches. Its task is to analyse dynamics of bacterial and fungal communities in soil samples collected from demonstration sites (task2.3).
KEY PERSONS
Prof. Tommaso Giordani (male) (AGROFIG Coordinator), Associate Professor in Biotechnologies for Plant Breeding, author or co-author of 96 scientific articles, with 1144 citations and h-index 21 (Google Scholar)
Prof. Andrea Cavallini (male), Full Professor in Plant Breeding. expert in genetics, structural genomics, plant breeding.
Prof. Lucia Natali (female), Associate Professor in Plant Genetics.
Dr. Alberto Vangelisti (male), Researcher in Genetics and Bioinformatics, expert in structural genomics.
Prof. Alessandra Turrini (female), Associate Professor in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Microbiology, expert in metagenomic studies
Prof. Monica Agnolucci (female), Associate Professor in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Microbiology, expert in metagenomic studies
Prof. Daniele Antichi (male), Associate Professor in Agronomy, expert in Agronomy, Soil Science, Plant fertilization.
Prof. Gianluca Brunori (male) Full Professor in Food Policy, expert in agricultural and food economics

PROJECT RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Usai G., Mascagni F., Giordani T., Vangelisti A., Bosi E., Zuccolo A., Ceccarelli M., King R., Hassani-Pak K., Solorzano Zambrano L., Cavallini A. and Natali L. Epigenetic patterns within the haplotype phased fig (Ficus carica L.) genome. The Plant Journal, 2020, 102, 600–614.
Vangelisti A., Solorzano Zambrano, L. Caruso G., Macheda D., Bernardi R., Usai G., Mascagni F., Giordani T., Gucci R., Cavallini A., Natali L.. How an ancient, salt-tolerant fruit crop, Ficus carica L., copes with salinity: a transcriptome analysis. Scientific Reports, 2019, 9:2561.
Agnolucci M., Avio L., Pepe A., Turrini A., Cristani C., Bonini P., Colosimo F., Ruzzi M., Giovannetti M. (2019). Bacteria associated with a commercial AMF inoculum: community composition and multifunctional activity as assessed by Illumina sequencing and culture-dependent tools. Frontiers in Plant Science 9:1956.
Knickel M., Caniglia G., Knickel K., Šūmane S., Maye D., Arcuri S., ... & Brunori G. (2023). Lost in a haze or playing to partners’ strengths? Learning to collaborate in three transdisciplinary European Living Labs. Futures, 152, 103219.
Tramacere, L.G., Antichi, D.*, Mele, M., Ragaglini, G., Mantino, A. (2024). Effects of intercropping on the herbage production of a binary grass-legume mixture (Hedysarum coronarium .L and Lolium multiflorum Lam.) under artificial shade in Mediterranean rainfed conditions. Agroforestry Systems, 98/6), 1445-1460. doi:10.1007/s10457-024-01012-8
RELEVANT INFRASTRUCTURE OR FACILITIES
DAFE has all necessary infrastructures and technical equipments relevant to the proposed work, in particular: a laboratory for soil analyses, a plant molecular biology lab, a microbiology lab and servers for bioinformatics analyses.
PROJECT RELATED PROJECTS
FIGGEN (https://www.figgen.eu/index.php/it/) "Valorising the diversity of the fig tree, an ancient fruit crop for sustainable Mediterranean agriculture"
AGROMIX, related to Agroforestry and Participatory research to drive the transition towards resilient farming and efficient land use in Europe https://agromixproject.eu/project/
PRA project “Genomica, fisiologia e difesa del fico (Ficus carica L.), una specie antica con grandi prospettive”, University of Pisa, Italy.
PRIN PNRR project PLASMA4SOIL “Development of essential oil-based smart formulates by means of plasma processing: effect against pests and impact on soil beneficial communities” P2022MK3AF.
DIVINFOOD H2020 Co-constructing interactive short and mid-term food chain to value agrobiodiversity in healty plant -based food, https://divinfood.eu/about/