Agro-Food System

Compulsory courses for all PhD students

• Business planning principles and tools - Dr. Ilaria Galavotti (8 hours) - 1° year
• Writing research project and scientific papers - Prof. John Williams (8 hours) - 1° year
• Public Speaking - Prof. John Williams (8 hours) - 1° year
• Environmental ethics: Culture, Imaginary and Narratives - Prof. Don Roberto Maier (6 hours) - 1° year
• European Food Law and policy -  Dr. Beatrice La Porta (8 hours) - 1° year

•  Sustainable Animal Production - Prof. Paolo Ajmone Marsan - Dor. Luca Cattaneo (8 hours) - 2° year
• Sustainable Crop Production - Dr. Andrea Fiorini (8 hours) - 2° year
• Food Technologies and Sustainability - Prof. Gianluca Giuberti (12 hours) - 2° year

•  Three minutes thesis - Prof. John Laurence Dennis (8 hours) - 3° year
• Sustainability Management - Dr. Cosa Marcello (8 hours) - 3° year

ENGLISH SKILLS

• Basic English course - (45 hours)
• Academic English course - Prof. Francesca O'Kane - (30 hours)

SPECIFIC TRAINING AT STUDENTS' CHOICE

To complete the training, each PhD student, in agreement with the tutors, must prepare an ad hoc training plan that includes at least 32 hours chosen from the courses proposed below. The courses will be activated with a minimum of 4 participants.

Topic  "Statistics and big-data"

• Applied statistics  - Prof. Riccardo Negrini  (16 hours) 
• Advanced methods for agri-food data analysis - Prof. Riccardo Negrini  (8 hours) 
• Towards Big Data. Informatics tools for data manipulation (course I) - Dr. Marco Milanesi (8 hours) 
• Towards Big Data. Informatics tools for data manipulation (course II) - Dr. Filippo Biscarini (8 hours) 

Topic "Advanced biotechnologies"

• Genetic modification and assisted evolution technologies in plant breeding - Prof. Matteo Busconi (8 hours) 
• Introduction to epigenetics and epigenomics - Prof. Paolo Ajmone Marsan (8 hours)  
• Methods to analyse molecular data on agricultural biodiversity - Prof. Licia Colli (8 hours)   
• Proteomics and metabolomics in the agro-food chain - Dr. Gabriele Rocchetti (8 hours) 

Topic "One Health"

• Bees, beekeeping and pollination - Prof. Ilaria Negri (8 hours) 
• Carbon farming & agricultural carbon credits - Dr. Andrea Ferrarini (8 hours) 
• Climate Change: focus on perennial crops - Prof. Sergio Tombesi (8 hours) 
• One Health: Ecosystems humans health and food -  Prof. Daniele Generali (16 hours) 
• The role of human nutritionin shaping sustainable food system - Prof. Margherita Dall'Asta (8 hours) 

Topic "The micro world"

• Beneficial microorganisms in the agri-food system - Prof. Edoardo Puglisi (8 hours) 
• Microbes in the agri-food chain: emerging risk - Dr. Claudia Cortimiglia (8 hours) 

Topic "Data driven modelling in agriculture"

• Development of Decision Support Systems (DSSs) for sustainable agriculture - Dr. Irene Salotti (8 hours) 
• Digitalization, rural development and innovation in agriculture - Prof. Matteo Gatti (8 hours)  
• System Thinking in Biological Science - Prof. Antonio Gallo (8 hours) 
• System Dynamics in Biological Science - Prof. Antonio Gallo (8 hours) 

Topic "Management and Legislation"

• Business organisation and human resource management - Prof. Francesco Virili (8 hours)  
• Introduction to the Italian tax system in agriculture - Dr. Andrea Purpura (8 hours) 
• Agricultural Business law and legislation - Dr. Lorenzo Paolo Botti (8 ore) 

Topic "Research-aid tools"

• Advanced mehods for literature analysis:bibliometrics, computational reviews and generative AI tools - Prof. Michele Cipriano, Dr. Marco Smacchia (12 hours) 
• Use of Artificial Intelligence in Research - Dr. Fabrizio Capocasale (12 hours) 

Topic "Strategic Communication"

• Scientific Communication -  Dr. Caterina Visco (8 hours) 
• Food Consumer Psychology  - Prof. Guendalina Gaffigna (8 hours)