Thirty years of Agripolis

The Agripolis campus of the University of Padua celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its foundation: a decades-long journey as a place of education, research, innovation and dialogue with the local area.

Rector Daniela Mapelli: «Thirty years ago Agripolis was born from an extraordinarily modern intuition: not simply to create a new university site, but an integrated system of knowledge, in which teaching, research, experimentation and the relationship with the local area could grow together. A vision that we owe to all the people who were able to transform a necessity into a great scientific and cultural project. Today we can say that Agripolis is not only a place, it is a method: bringing different disciplines and skills into relation in order to address complex problems. Thirty years ago this model was innovative; today, faced with challenges such as climate change, food security, biodiversity and the interdependence between human, animal and environmental health, it has become necessary.
Celebrating this anniversary therefore means thanking everyone who has built and continues to give life to Agripolis, but above all looking ahead. In 1996 this Campus was born from the ability to anticipate what kind of University would be needed in the future; today we have the same responsibility: to imagine what Agripolis will be like in thirty years’ time, continuing to invest in research, interdisciplinarity and dialogue with the local area and with society».

Gianni Barcaccia, Director of the Department of Agronomy, Animals, Food, Natural Resources and Environment (DAFNAE): «In its first thirty years, the Agripolis Campus has established itself as one of Italy’s leading university hubs in agricultural, veterinary, food, forestry and environmental sciences, bringing education, research and innovation into dialogue with the local area, institutions and the production system within the primary sector. A particularly important role has been played in transferring new technologies and scientific knowledge to businesses and professionals, contributing to the development, competitiveness and sustainability of the agri-food and forestry sector. Today we are called upon to project this heritage into the future: climate change, food security, biodiversity protection and the sustainable management of resources – above all water – require increasingly integrated skills. Agripolis can make a decisive contribution by promoting the principle of one single health based on the close interdependence between human health, animal health and the health of agroecosystems. It is this unified vision that must guide research, education, technology transfer and innovation in the coming decades.»

Luca Bargelloni, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science (BCA): «The Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science (BCA) was established in 2011 by bringing together researchers from different scientific fields, who share the aim of making BCA a national and international reference centre for education and research in the disciplines underpinning the health of animals of veterinary interest. The Agripolis campus, thanks to the presence of three other university departments with strongly complementary expertise and of other institutions such as the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezia and the Agenzia Veneta per l’Innovazione nel Settore Primario, has over the years offered BCA the opportunity to express to the full the multidisciplinary approach that has characterised it since its foundation: the department has obtained as many as two projects of excellence funded by the MUR and today represents a point of reference for businesses, bodies and institutions such as the Veneto Region and the ministries responsible for food production, biodiversity conservation and the management of conflicts between the two areas. We now look confidently to the future and to the next challenges, certain that this environment will continue to represent fertile ground for growth and development in training the professionals of tomorrow.»

Vincenzo D’Agostino, Territory and Agro-Forestry Systems TESAF: «Thirty years in the life of a Campus such as Agripolis represent a milestone for our University. These are 30 years that celebrate, as well as the birth of an important infrastructure for teaching, research and the third mission, the full maturity of a very broad community working across the board on agriculture, forests, animal health, the planet’s single health, and the impacts of climate change. 
This community finds its common thread in managing and protecting the environment while remaining aware of the needs of our daily lives. Thirty years ago Agripolis made a choice which, reassessed today, has proved very far-sighted: working with a transdisciplinary approach by using systematically and organically the plurality of expertise hosted in a Science Park.  
The most important challenge for the future will be to guide education, research and society towards a conscious and ethical use of artificial intelligence tools so that those who plan actions and make decisions never forget the centrality of human judgement and the importance of verifying things ‘in the real world’.»

Alessandro Zotti, Animal Medicine, Production and Health (MAPS): «Thirty years of Agripolis tell a story of resilience and sustainability, but also of a capacity for transformation and future vision. The initial intuition of integrating within the same Campus the cultural area of Agricultural, Forestry and Environmental Sciences with the field of veterinary medical education in all its health-related expressions, namely care and prevention in Public Health, was followed by the birth of a new hub for the transmission of thought and of a model of socio-economic development from the perspective of One Health. From an opportunity for university building development seized in 1996, 30 years later it has led to the creation of a hub structurally integrated into the concept of Health as a Whole (In Universum Salus), as proposed precisely by the Charta di Padova of 2025. 
The wish for Agripolis for the next thirty years is that it may retain the same intuitive and adaptive capacity that is the result of the individual contribution of the men and women who work every day in the four departments, as well as of the stakeholders, including institutional ones, who benefit from the socio-economic impact of the professionals trained at Agripolis.»

The history of the Campus

The Agripolis Campus of the University of Padua is located in Legnaro (Padua) and is today an important hub dedicated to agricultural and forestry sciences, landscape and green-space design, and food and veterinary sciences. 

Its origins, however, are older. 

From the sixteenth century, for about two centuries, the cultivation and study of plants in Padua fell exclusively within the remit of the Botanical Garden.

 In 1766, however, an agricultural garden for teaching and experimentation was established within the walls of Padua, first at Santa Croce, then at Portello.

In the post-war period, Guido Gonnella, then Minister of Public Education, approved the launch of the courses of the Faculty of Agriculture in November 1946. The site was therefore established in the area of the agricultural garden at Portello, in a complex of new buildings constructed in less than a year to a design by Massimo Velatta and inaugurated in 1951.

The initial spaces soon proved insufficient, especially as in 1968 the degree course in Forestry Sciences, the second in Italy, had been launched. 

To cope with the growing number of students and the increased experimental needs, an expansion of the facilities was carried out, completed in 1973.

However, changing needs in experimentation and the use of machinery and chemical products required more suitable spaces: thus the Experimental Agricultural Farm of Legnaro was established and, alongside it, from 1996 the Faculties of Agriculture, Forestry Sciences and the newly established Veterinary Medicine moved there, giving rise to the new Agripolis hub.

It was in the academic year 1995-96 that the courses of what was then the Faculty of Agriculture began at Agripolis, while in the previous year the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine had moved there, having previously been hosted by the “Duca degli Abruzzi” Agricultural Technical Institute in Padua. 

Agripolis today

Agripolis is the multifunctional hub of the University of Padua located in Legnaro (PD) which hosts the School of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine. 

The campus is at the forefront of teaching and research, integrating classrooms, laboratories, a teaching farm, the veterinary hospital, as well as residences, canteens and experimental farms.

It is a true scientific and educational citadel; an interdisciplinary space in which teaching and research coexist. 

Today, on the Agripolis Campus, built on a model reminiscent of Anglo-Saxon campuses, students and researchers together form a dynamic and stimulating community that gathers every day in the buildings and on the large lawns surrounding them. 

The Campus is home to the Agenzia Veneta per l’Innovazione nel Settore Primario, an instrumental body of the Regione del Veneto, which carries out support activities for the Regional Executive in the field of policies for the agricultural, agri-food, forestry and fisheries sectors.

The Istituto zooprofilattico sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVEzsve), a reference point for veterinary health and safety for Veneto, Friuli- Venezia Giulia and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano.