Destination Public Engagement #7

The Neapolitan city is preparing to be a reference point for Public Engagement in Italy. The days of November 6 and 7, 2025 will, in fact, be dedicated to innovative policies, tools, activities and practices that will feature institutional representatives, scholars, scholars and professionals active in participatory planning and open dialogue with communities in order to promote the social impact of research.

It will be the University of Naples Federico II that will host this year's Destinazione Public Engagement #7, the annual event organized by APEnet, the Association "Italian Network of Universities and Research Institutions for Public Engagement," at the University's Congress Center , which will be the setting for reports and debates. At the heart of the two-day event is the desire to share experiences that foster understanding, trust and increasingly active exchange between research paths and the demands coming from society to generate social and cultural value.

Opening the proceedings will be institutional greetings by Rector Matteo Lorito and APEnet President Pier Andrea Serra. This will be followed by a session dedicated to the challenges of Public Engagement with the participation, among others, of Antonio Felice Uricchio, President ANVUR, and Stefano Corgnati, CRUI Delegate for Technology Transfer, Third Mission, Museums and Sport and Magnificent Rector of the Polytechnic University of Turin, with the presentation of the results of the internal working groups dedicated to monitoring best practicesin Public Engagement, training paths for universities and research institutions, the enhancement of the Association's activities and the priorities of the new Board of Directors elected last May 26 in Turin. It will be an opportunity to outline the Association's future prospects and operational proposals for 2026.

The day on Friday, Nov. 7, dedicated to the theme "Public Engagement in the PNRR: experiences and challenges of territorial co-design," will give voice to concrete experiences and projects, with talks by Elisabetta Biffi (MUSA), Adele Del Bello (Restart Foundation) and Marco Bresadola (EcosistER).

The day will conclude with a moment of collective synthesis and discussion, aimed at enhancing the perspectives of Public Engagement as a lever of innovation and social cooperation. Destination Public Engagement #7 thus confirms APEnet's mission: to build an increasingly solid national network open to international dialogue, capable of translating knowledge into public value.

APEnet is The "Italian Network of Universities and Research Institutions for Public Engagement - APEnet." Active since 2018, it was established as an Association in 2022 to consolidate and make visible the role of Public Engagement in Italy.

Public Engagement is a set of values and institutional actions of Universities and Research Institutions with the aim of generating social, cultural and economic growth, in collaboration with all social actors. A dynamic process of interaction that leads to the progressive overcoming of the distance between research and society in order to nurture new challenges, which take into account territorial identities and know how to recognize the contribution of the different protagonists who operate in them, amplifying their impact.

APEnet is a space for discussion, study and design of tools and actions, for sharing and enhancing the knowledge and skills necessary to promote the important cultural change that today sees Universities and Research Institutions as protagonists for an "inclusive growth" of the country through listening, dialogue and collaboration with society.