MUR Department of Excellence 2023-2027
The Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics (ESOMAS) has been recognized among the Italian "Departments of Excellence" and has been granted funding from the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) for a five-year development project with the aim of achieving a significant improvement in the quality of research and in scientific, organizational and didactic planning abilities.
For ESOMAS this is an important confirmation considering that the department had also won similar funding in the previous five-year period (2018-22).
Reasons for our excellence
ESOMAS promotes an interdisciplinary perspective on the analysis of economic and social phenomena characterized by attention to quantitative aspects and stands out for its strong adherence to international best practices in research, teaching and Third Mission activities.
Project and objectives
If the previous five-year period of excellence (2018-2022) allowed ESOMAS to consolidate its position among the top departments in the national landscape, the ambitious goal for this five-year period is to achieve similar recognition and positioning at European level.
The three overall development goals are:
- to pursue excellence in scientific research, attested by publication of papers in the best international journals (please see the "Publications" page);
- to ensure innovative and high-level teaching, according to international standards on frontier topics that are in high demand in the labour market;
- improve the visibility and reputation of ESOMAS through public engagement and third mission activities.
The achievement of these goals hinges on the development of a scientific project that, on one hand, involves ESOMAS' areas of excellence individually and as a whole, structurally, and contributes to both basic and applied knowledge growth in line with national (PNRR) and EU (e.g., Horizon Europe Mission) strategic themes and, on the other hand, has clear implications and repercussions on didactic (new methodologies and tools teaching) and third mission activities (contributions to economic policy debate and design).
Project milestones
2023-2025
- Recruitment of nine units of teaching, administrative, and technical staff
- Establishment of a research infrastructure (ESOMAS Datalab) for the production, management, and widespread use of highly innovative databases functional to the study of the scientific project’s topics
- Revising study plans to increase the presence of teaching modules related to state-of-the-art management and analyses techniques of large databases
- Launching of a system of incentives for publications in the most prestigious international journals, for quality teaching and for participation in competitive calls
- Activation of procedures for the attraction of Visiting Professors
2026-2027
- Upgrading the skills of its researchers, PhD and MSc students on frontier topics and methodologies between applied economics and data science
- Use of the new ESOMAS Datalab also for teaching purposes
- Activation of procedures for the attraction of Visiting Professors
Actions
The Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine represent shocks of an exceptional nature for the global economy, which is already undergoing a profound phase of technological and environmental structural change. Extreme shocks and structural transformations are not only exacerbating pre-existing disparities and vulnerabilities but are also creating unprecedented risks and new inequalities for whole productive sectors and geographic areas, affecting with particular intensity specific groups of workers, households, and businesses.
The nature of the shocks, the current inflationary dynamics, and the concurrent ecological and digital transitions are of such magnitude that the consequences of these risks and inequalities appear different from those of the past. As such they require a critical analysis of cause and effect, and a profound rethinking of the policy mix with which governments are called upon to intervene: macroeconomic, insurance and redistributive policies, education policies, active labour policies, and market regulation.
The scientific project aims to study the aforementioned issues in a cross-cutting way, leveraging on the existence within ESOMAS of 4 groups of researchers who are well integrated within and characterised by high international research standards, and to exploit in a strategic and innovative way with respect to the local and national scene the opportunities and synergies with other institutions in the area, Collegio Carlo Alberto Foundation first and foremost.
Teaching assistants will be introduced with tasks to support lecturers and to enhance the effectiveness of teaching materials.
Educational offerings will be boosted with courses and seminars taught by high-profile visiting professors/scientists. In line with the themes of the project, the focus will be on enhancing students' professional skills through modules taught by recognised professionals for the acquisition and development of frontier knowledge and skills (machine learning, deep learning, neural networks), which are in high demand on the labour market.
It is also planned to further strengthen in an international perspective the "Vilfredo Pareto" PhD in Economics.
In close synergy with the emerging twin facility of the Collegio Carlo Alberto, a research infrastructure (ESOMAS Datalab) is to be established for the production, management and widespread use of highly innovative databases for the study of science project themes, with expected repercussions also on level II and III teaching and Third Mission activities. Also, through the creation of ad hoc surveys, new data will be collected on Italian firms' participation in GVCs, diversification strategies, management of new risks and transformation related to ecological and digital transitions.
The collected data will also be used as a training dataset for machine learning methods to predict business strategies and behaviours in already available databases.
The project management and monitoring will be overseen by a management team (MT) consisting of the director and the two deputy directors for research and teaching. The other members of the Council and the Research and Teaching Commissions will also be involved periodically in an advisory capacity. The MT will meet on a regular basis to define recruitment strategies, evaluate the consistency of the scientific work with the project themes, and deliberate on teaching and research awards.