Project background

The Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL) aims to capitalize a number of activities carried out in the past five years with different institutions from Latin America.  

Partner institutions have been selected according to their interest and experience in the field. Moreover, academic partners have been integrated with non-academic partners to establish the basis for the creation of a laboratory that wants to stimulate a wide range of stakeholders to work together.  

Past joint activities that DISTAL carried out together with the partner institutions include: 

  • A doctoral position co-financed between UNIBO and TEC (Costarica). Laura Brenes Peralta finalized her PhD in 2021; 

  • Study visit to analyse the diary sector of Dominican Republic organized by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic (Prof. L. Grazia; Prof. M. Vittuari) 

  • Participation to the “Escuela de Verano, Gestión PyMES y Territorios” organized by IILA in 2020 and 2021 (Prof. M. Vittuari); 

  • Post-doc grant (12 months) funded in the framework of the programme “Becas Postdoctorales de Movilidad Internacional Convocatoria 2017-2018; 

  • Mobility periods from UNIBO to ISA:  2 MA students (1 virtual); 1 Professors; 

  • Mobility periods from UNIBO to TEC:  3 MA students (1 virtual); 2 Professors; 

  • Mobility periods from TEC to UNIBO: 2 MA students; 3 Professors; 2 Professionals; 

  • Mobility periods from UNIBO to UNL: 1 PhD student; 1 Post-doc; 2 Professors; 

  • Mobility periods from UNL to UNIBO: 3 Post-doc; 5 Professors; 

  • Joint supervision of Master Thesis: 
    - Francesco Leschi (2020), La sostenibilità economica e ambientale nella frutticoltura tropicale: l’analisi della produzione di ananas in Repubblica Domenicana; 
    - Giacomo Packer (2021), Social and Economic Impacts of the Pineapple Supply Chain in Costa Rica. A Life Cycle Approach; 

  • Joint supervision of PhD Thesis: 
    - PHD - Laura Brenes Peralta (2021), Life Cycle Thinking for sustainability assessment and decision-making in selected food supply chains in Costa Rica 

  • Publications deriving from joint activities: 
    - Brenes-Peralta L.; Jimenez-Morales M.F.; Campos-Rodriguez R.; De Menna F.; Vittuari M., Decision-making process in the circular economy: A case study on university food waste-to-energy actions in Latin america, «ENERGIES», 2020, 13, pp. 2291 – 2315. 
    - Sarquis M.A., Siroli L., Modesto M., Patrignani F., Lanciotti R., Mattarelli P., Reinheimer J., Burns P., Novel bifidobacteria strains isolated from non-conventional sources. Technological, antimicrobial and biological characterisation for their use as probiotics. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 2019, 127, pp. 1207-1218. 
    - Patrignani F., Siroli L., Serrazanetti D.I., Braschi G., Betoret E., Reinheimer J.A., Lanciotti R., Microencapsulation of functional strains by high pressure homogenization for a potential use in fermented milk. Food Research International, 2017, 97, pp. 250-257. 

  • Others