"Orizzonte Montagna" project

The mountains are the subject of renewed attention in the national debate both at the institutional level and in civil society. The "highlands" are a complex, fascinating, fragile world, not without contradictions, but also a laboratory of the future for the global issues of sustainability, regeneration and climate change. If the most widespread collective imagination during the twentieth century has progressively reduced the mountain to a place for the recreation and leisure of citizens, a space of freedom, a place of the soul, a reserve of nature, the mountains are above all the people who live there with all the problems and difficulties related to the physical nature of the places, critical issues of a geological order, environmental, climatic, logistical, economic and social issues that require additional attention, knowledge and awareness on the part of all those who live in the mountains or who frequent them in any capacity, and of those who at various levels administer and decide on this important part of the country.

The link between the University of Padova and the mountains is historically rooted and finds lifeblood in the research activities of the professors of the University of Padua: a survey carried out for the five-year period 2018-22 has shown that more than half of the 32 departments of the University are engaged in some research project that directly concerns the mountains. The scientific publications concerning mountain territories have been over 700, the degree dissertations concerning the mountains have been more than 300, and over 100 of our teachers are engaged in teachings that deal with topics that have specific relevance to the mountains.

From these assumptions comes the idea of a project called "Orizzonte Montagna" with the aim of developing and enhancing training activities on multiple themes that revolve around the mountains in a coherent and coordinated way. The word Horizon responds to a deep conviction that the needs of training in the mountains can and must be declined in a broad and interdisciplinary way. The extraordinary richness and heterogeneity of knowledge and skills present in the University on the subject of mountains makes it possible to propose and grasp a wide range of concrete training needs on emerging and highly topical issues and, at the same time, of specific professional interest. 
 

"Orizzonte montagna" intends to offer in a flexible and inclusive way a degree courses on topics related to the mountains aimed at everyone, but, above all, at qualified professionals, administrators and operators in various capacities interested in updating and retraining their skills.

All courses include the issuance of a certificate of participation and, where applicable, micro-credentials, in line with the policies set out in the University Strategic Piano 2023-2027: "To create, in concert with the world of work, an degree courses consisting of short, flexible and focused courses, focused on the deepening of specific knowledge, technical skills and/or personal skills that require certification through micro-credentials".

Micro-credentials are one of the pillars of the European Education Area for lifelong learning and are based on a guideline of the Council of the European Union (OJ of the European Union, 16/06/22, no. C243/10). 

Of fundamental importance in defining the contents of the degree courses coordinated in the "Orizzonte Montagna" project are listening to and discussing with institutions, bodies, production organizations and cultural and social associations present and operating in the mountain area. Special attention is paid to our Alpine reality, but the project, in line with the international vocation of the University, is ready to seize every opportunity (e.g. networks on the same issues on a European or non-European scale) and is open to the needs of mountain territories without geographical limitations.

The "Orizzonte Montagna" project has entered into a collaboration agreement with the Giovanni Angelini Foundation – Mountain Studies Center campus in Belluno, on the basis of a consolidated collaboration documented by numerous joint initiatives carried out over the last three decades. Other collaboration agreements may be stipulated from time to time with other entities interested in a structured collaboration with the University of Padua.
 

The training proposal of the "Orizzonte Montagna" syllabus, given the good success of the 2025 syllabus, provides for the provision of 9 courses for the year 2026: four of the Professional Updating type with the issuance of micro-credentials, three of type A Catalog, one offered by the Angelini Foundation with the patronage of the University of Padova and one free of charge, involving three Departments of the University (Department of Medicine - DIMED, Department of Historical, Geographical and Ancient Sciences - DISGEA, Department of Land and Agro-Forestry Systems - TESAF).