Brescia Paolo
Duration: 12 months (from 11/02/2025 to 10/02/2026)
Research Grant Title: “Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Businesses and Public Administrations: Organizational Implications and Communication Practices.”
IATI Project Title: “Implementation Agreement for the Development of Research Activities Related to the IATI Project – ‘ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, CITIZENS, BUSINESSES AND MEDIA’ – Scientific Coordinator: Prof. Alessandro Lovari.”

The research investigates the transformation of public sector communication as well as corporate communication, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises, following the rise of artificial intelligence technologies, including generative AI. The project focuses on the organisational implications and evolving communication practices brought about by this technological revolution. The project also examines how media coverage of AI contributes to the reshaping of organisational dynamics. A mixed-methods approach is adopted, with a particular focus on in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and communication professionals.

Cabria Marcello
Duration: 18 months (from 24/04/2024 to 23/02/2026)
Research Grant Title: “GC-LIFES. Grounded Cities: Liveability, Foundational Economy, and Urban Space in Medium-Sized Cities.”
PRIN 2022 PNRR Project Title: “GC-LIFES. Grounded Cities: Liveability, Foundational Economy and Urban Space of Cities in the Middle” – Scientific Coordinator: Prof. Antonello Podda.

The research focuses on the transformations influencing urban space usage and citizen well-being in three medium-sized urban areas in Italy. These cities are characterized by their intermediate position between major urban centers and more marginalized regions of the country, and are referred to as 'cities in the middle'. The approach employed is rooted in the theoretical framework of the Foundational Economy, which emphasizes the analysis of essential service provision, the presence of social infrastructures, and the availability of residents' ‘residual’ income. The methodology adopted is a mixed-methods approach, combining both qualitative and quantitative tools, and includes the analysis of secondary data (demographic, socioeconomic, and urban planning), in-depth interviews, and survey data.

Loi Martina
Duration: 18 months (from 11/04/2024 to 10/02/2026)
Research Grant Title: “Next Cities for Whom? Imaginaries, Resources and Inequalities in Urban Fragments (NEXT-CITIES).”
PRIN 2022 PNRR Project Title: “Next Cities for Whom? Imaginaries, Resources and Inequalities in Urban Fragments” – Scientific Coordinator: Prof. Giovanni Sistu.

As an urban geographer, I am interested in the relationship between urban infrastructures and urbanisation processes, with a focus on social and spatial injustices, as well as in analysing urban policies through an urban political ecology lens. In my PhD research, I worked on the suburban motorway SS 554  located in Sardinia, exploring its urban interstices and the intersection between everyday practices, urban political ecology, and urban policies pertaining to the interstitial infrastructural space. Currently, I am working on the PRIN-PNRR project NEXT-CITIES, which explores post-pandemic recovery urban policies, and in particular, the relationship between urban space and the hydric network in Cagliari. In this project, I critically analyse the infrastructural networks and planned projects, the spatial practices along water bodies, the relationship with urban natures, with the aim of highlighting hydro-social relationships and the distorting effects of urban policies and the spatial and social injustices triggered.

Riccio Martina
Duration: 12 months (from 23/09/2024 to 22/02/2026)
Research Grant Title: “Peripheralization and Electoral Geography.”
PRIN 2022 PNRR Project Title: “Peripheralization and Electoral Geography” – Scientific Coordinator: Prof. Stefano Rombi.

My research focuses on the analysis of political behavior at the local level, using an empirical and comparative approach. I have developed a comprehensive municipal-level database on the Italian Chamber of Deputies elections from 1948 to 2021, integrating electoral data, socio-demographic indicators, and classifications of internal areas. This original dataset was designed to analyze electoral behavior in peripheral areas and to understand how voting is expressed across different territorial contexts.

Tomazini De Souza Felipe
Duration: 12 months (from 01/11/2024 to 31/01/2026)
Research Grant Title: “The Promotion and Protection of Sustainable Development: Analysis of Practice and Case Law Outside the EU.”
PRIN 2022 PNRR Project Title: “Make it Better: In Search of a New Normative Model for the Promotion of Sustainable Development in the EU External Action” – Scientific Coordinator: Prof. Luca Pantaleo.

This research addresses the promotion of sustainable development within the framework of the European Union’s external action. As sustainability has progressively become a central concern in the Union’s internal policies, the EU now seeks to consolidate its international leadership in this field. Within this framework, the study explores the legal instruments deployed by the Union to pursue sustainability objectives beyond its borders, and critically assesses the normative models currently in use, with a view to developing a revised approach grounded in the recalibration of existing structures.