RICERCA ITALIANA     

C.I.E.L.I. Centro Italiano di Eccellenza sulla Logistica Integrata

Università degli Studi di Genova

Principal Investigator

Sergio Maria CARBONE Università degli Studi di GENOVA

Research Objectives

Studies in logistics – a highly interdisciplinary topic – have become more and more important over the last years, due to major changes in the international scenario, as far as financial strategies, technological progress and production patterns. Logistics has significantly entered strategies of governments and regions, as well as of manufacturing and tertiary firms, both national and transnational, and is taking the role of the discipline that controls a significant and growing share of social and economic development, both at the local and at the global level. In Ligury and namely in Genoa, due to its territorial and cultural vocation, a number of university research centres and other research bodies represent an important heritage for the development of studies and activities related to logistics. A reinforcement of all related activities in this area is generally considered as being a key interest for North West Italy and of strategic importance for the whole country. The proposed excellence centre aims at establishing a permanent meeting and coordination point not only for research bodies directly involved in the proposal, but also for all research bodies, firms and public/territorial institutions, since a strongly interdisciplinary body can implement the potential of all players involved in the project. The centre aims at reaching, in the medium term, a size and an importance such to allow it to be in the vanguard in the research and high-level teaching in the domain of logistics. Besides, the Centre should allow a meeting between the academic milieu, the firms and the institutions, in order to realise permanent achievements in the field of socio-economic development. 4.1 Long term goals In the long run, the Excellence Centre aims at establishing a permanent coordination between the promoters, in order to set up an interdisciplinary structure focused on research and advanced education in the field of logistics. The Centre will implement the potential resources of the promoters, as well as of national and foreign institution involved. It will also represent a point of contact between the academic world and the firms, with measurable effects on the production systems and to better focus research and education on the need of the economy (see point 7). The Centre will namely aimed at the following goals:1. Research – The centre will enhance the interdisciplinary and inter-university research in the domain of logistics, throughout its different topics (transports, supply chain, industrial logistics, distribution logistics, reverse logistics, etc.) and the different players involved. 2. Links with international research – The centre will reinforce the heritage of relationships that the promoters have with international research centres (as listed in point 7) and above all will enhance the interaction, within the interdisciplinary framework on which the project is based.3. Links with industries and institutions – The Centre will promote permanent and two-way relationships both with industries and economic/political institutions, in order to ensure a base of knowledge and study to the players in charge for the strategies of implementation of logistic and transport infrastructures, for the assessment of transport policies, for the regulation of markets, and for the enforcement of regulations and controls in the field of safety and environment quality. Industries and institutions will provide essential information and advice in order to focus research and advanced education on the actual needs, both in term of “products” (goods and services for the supply chain) and of “policies” (laws and regulations). 4. Advanced education – The Centre will promote the education of researchers in order that they can find also in Italy a good environment to develop their skills, so that the opening to cooperation with foreign research centre can eventually enrich the national cultural and scientific heritage, instead of causing the exodus of Italian researchers. 4.2 Short term goals In the first three years, the strategic goals of the Centre will be pursued through the following actions, that can be seen as short term goals:– To plan the framework of research guidelines and projects to be developed by the Centre (see § 5), and to start the research on a reduced number of priority topics, concerning namely (see § 6):– management of logistic networks;– logistics and business management strategies;– logistics and safety;– ports as logistic nodes;– urban logistics.– To plan and to start off observatories on the following phenomena:– the quality of logistic services;– the environmental impact of transport and logistic activities;– changes in infrastructure networks;– safety systems in networks;– liberalisation/deregulation and access to logistic services;– balances in transport and logistics firms;– acquisition, management and diffusion of data on logistics.– To reinforce and widen the network of national and international links with other academic seats, research centres, governmental bodies and industries (see § 7), also through the development of the following initiatives: – meetings with lecturers and researchers belonging to departments and other universities that cooperate with the Centre; – mobility of researchers, PhD students and scholarship holders in order to investigate on specific topics in related Italian and foreign universities, and reception of foreign researchers, PhD students and grant-holders;– workshops and conferences in order to discuss and diffuse the results of planned research (see § 6), also for assessing their impact and possible future developments;– publications containing the results of research activities.– To plan and implement initiatives of advanced education (see § 8) with a special reference to: – master courses and PhD programmes, also jointly with similar international research centres; – cycles of lectures for students, research students and research fellows belonging to the centre and/or to the related structures (departments, faculties);– workshop, seminars and courses oriented to enhance the specific juridical, technical and managerial skills of people already working in the logistic industry. <<<