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The University of Bologna (UniBo) has been recognized as the oldest university in the western world, and as the venue where, on 19 June 1999, took place the meeting among ministers of higher education from 29 European countries to sign the Declaration of Bologna, the gateway of the process aiming to harmonize higher education systems across Europe known as the Bologna Process.

Its organization has been shaped, since 1995, in a Multicampus structure, so divided into 11 faculties, 33 research departments as well as 5 operating branches (Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and Rimini), aiming to provide 143 first-level degree courses, 98 specialized degree courses and 9 European specialization courses; post-graduate studies have been organized trough 14 Doctoral Schools, with more than 300 graduate-level programs and approximately 1,800 PhD students. Thus UniBo may be considered as one of the largest in the country as well as ranked among its first top level universities.

The University of Bologna is one of the most proactive Italian universities both in research and technology transfer, at least since 2004: at the national level, the University ranks second for competitive research funding from the Italian Government, whereas, at the European one, it has successfully participated in FP6 with a total of 114 projects (in 14 projects as coordinator) funded by the European Commission in all its specific programmes. In FP7 our University has presented over 1100 projects achieving total financial aid of about 73 million Euros with 228 funded projects - acting as coordinator in 44 of them. For the Theme 8 - “Socioeconomic sciences and Humanities” (SSH) of the Cooperation programme, the University has been involved in 10 projects (in 2 as coordinator).

Cesena is situated in Northern Italy within Emilia-Romagna Region, some 15km from the Adriatic coast. Together with Forlì it is the capital of the Forlì-Cesena district. The district has about 378,000 inhabitants in 30 municipalities. Cesena itself has a population of about 96,000.

A strategy for local sustainability is included in Cesena city council’s political programme for 2009-2014 (the Piano di mandato). The title of this strategy is ‘Sustainability as the lighthouse for every local policy’. It was adopted at a city council meeting in June 2009. This strategy re-establishes the objectives set out in the Local Action Plan designed during the Cesena Agenda 21 Forums in 2003.

Cesena objective for energy planning is:

Objective 20-20-20 : -20% gas carbon emissions, +20% use of renewable energy & 20% energy saving (EU Directive 20 20 20)

• Establishing a society for renewable energies owned by the city council
• Preparing and adopting an Energy Action Plan for the development of renewable energy sources
• Zero impact public administration: the Municipality runs environmental best practices

The council has not yet adopted a specific local strategy or action plan for sustainable energy. However, since becoming a signatory to the Covenant of Mayors in November 2009 the city council has made a commitment to achieve a larger reduction in CO2 emissions than the EU target of 20%, though no specific target figure has yet been established. To achieve this and meet obligations under the Covenant, the city is designing a Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP).

Cesena municipality is thus

aiming to participate in projects focused on:

•  energy efficiency in public buildings (in particular planning  actions to improve their operational efficiency through low-or-no-cost measures, effective commissioning or better operation and maintenance);
• renewable electricity generation;
• renewables for heating and cooling
• smart energy networks. 

TENDER is an organization born in 1988 by persons interested in Innovation, Economics, Social, Industrial and Environmental topics. It has reached a wide experience in the study of the EU, Italian and regional societies and economies. Particular attention was devoted to the Technological Innovation, Human Factor, Economic and Social Development. The main activities of the company are Studies, Researches, Vocational Educational Training (VET) courses, consultancy to public and private bodies. 

Many EU R&D projects have been designed and carried out since 1993 with TIDE (Technological Innovation for Disabled and Elderly) Programme (USER project) till Public Health Programme, FP6 (see CAALYX project), under FP7 (CONFIDENCE project), within CIP-ICT-PSP (CAALYX-MV and FATE projects), within AAL 2010 (NACODEAL and ELDERHOP projects) and an EU Thematic Network (E-NO-FALLS project).