In the centenary of its foundation, Parthenope University of Naples receives a prestigious international award: the UNESCO Chair in “Environment, Resources and Sustainable Development”

( www.unescochair.uniparthenope.it ).

The UNESCO Chair has been established after a decade of active scientific collaboration with the UNESCO Headquarters of Paris, in particular with the Division of Ecology and Earth Sciences, the Secretariat of the Man and the Biosphere Programme, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

The UNESCO Chair, conferred to the homonymous International PhD Programme hosted at the Department of Science and Technology, is coordinated by Prof. Pier Paolo Franzese and is based in the monumental Villa Doria d’Angri, historical representative venue of Parthenope University.

The UNESCO Chair is designed to be a center of excellence in the fields of environmental sciences, ecology and nature conservation, and sustainable development. The specific objectives of the Chair will be achieved through scientific research, teaching, and dissemination activities focused on two main priority targets:

1) the achievement of the 2030 Agenda United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);

2) the implementation of sustainable development models in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, living laboratories where to pursue objectives of nature conservation and socio-economic development.

The UNESCO Chair benefits from a strong partnership including more than 20 national and international institutions, among which: European and international universities located in four different continents, UNESCO-MAB Biosphere Reserves, national and international research centers (CNR, CREA, CIHEAM), the Italian Society of Ecology (SItE), The Italian Society of Marine Biology, the National Interuniversity Consortium for Marine Sciences (CoNISMa), the Italian National Order of Biologists, and trade associations such as ASMEL and Coldiretti.

Through networks with different stakeholders and interuniversity cooperation, the UNESCO Chair will contribute to study and solve local and global environmental problems connected to the complex human-nature interactions. The UNESCO Chair will represent an important asset for the transfer of know-how and the scientific support to students, researchers, citizens, managers, and policy makers.