BARI (ITALPRESS) – For the first time in Italy thesis of PhD students in agri-food materials become an operational tool for the labour market. This is what the agreement protocol signed by UniCredit, University of Bari and Foglie introduces a permanent system of transfer of knowledge from university classrooms to agricultural enterprises. The agreement – formalized through a framework convention that regulates dissemination activities, professional orientation, multimedia production and joint training – allows to collect, classify and make available the scientific results of PhD students in a form that can be used by companies, technicians, cooperatives and operators of supply chain.
This infrastructure is accompanied by a structured training course in collaboration with UniCredit: from January 2026 forms will be activated for access to credit for the agricultural business, management of the bank-business dialogue, the construction of the economic model of a new business, the drafting of the business plan, the analysis of financial needs and the integrated sustainability criteria for SMEs in the sector. The courses, provided by specialists and volunteers of the bank, will be aimed at agricultural entrepreneurs, young technicians, students and professionals working in the South supply chains. The agreement also includes thematic seminars, video productions filmed in experimental fields and university laboratories, orientation activities for agricultural food trades and Job Day programming aimed at meeting between emerging scientific skills and enterprises requiring advanced profiles on soils, irrigation, plant genetics, digital agriculture and input reduction.
“University research contains immediate solutions for many of the challenges of our subsidiaries: efficient use of water, soil fertility, production yields, energy, new varieties, climate adaptation – comments Ferdinando Natali, Regional Manager South of UniCredit -. To make this knowledge available to the territories means to strengthen the entire value chain and to offer young skills truly spendable. Our contribution focuses on concrete tools: banking and management training, credit skills, support for business models and creating stable links between research and those producing economic value. It is an element of competitiveness and social development for the South.”.
According to Foglie – Young Associated Publishers, “bringing the thesis out of the university means recognizing the professional value of the work of the PhD students and putting it at the service of the enterprises. The results of their research are a heritage that can influence agronomic choices, investments and production models. Our task is to translate these content, make them accessible and build a stable bridge between science and work.”.
The initiative is configured as one of the first national models capable of transforming agricultural academic knowledge into operational skills, with direct relapses on the quality of production, on the innovation of the supply chains and on professional opportunities.”.
– photo office Unicredit, Ferdinando Natali, Regional
Manager South of UniCredit –
(ITALPRESS).
