International collaboration data gathering for SDG

Università IULM participates in international collaboration on gathering and measuring data for the SDGs through research that integrates quantitative, qualitative, and comparative methods for measuring sustainable development.

Centro di Ricerca Cultura e Scienza della Sostenibilità (CRCS)

Activities are coordinated by the Centro di Ricerca Cultura e Scienza della Sostenibilità (CRCS), established in 2023 and directed by Professor Massimo De Giuseppe (Full Professor of Contemporary History).
The Centre was founded as part of IULM’s participation in the EIT Culture & Creativity (EIT C&C) network — the European Institutional Partnership for the Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (CCSI) within the EU’s Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC).
CRCS serves as IULM’s main interdisciplinary platform for international cooperation in sustainability-related cultural research, innovation, and education.

Its objectives include:

1. Promoting innovative education and internationalisation in the field of sustainability and culture, equipping students with cross-sectoral skills;
2. Supporting the design of cultural products and services that address today’s environmental and social challenges;
3. Advancing the recognition of culture as a driver of innovation and sustainable growth;
4. Contributing to the creation of an open, resilient European community in the cultural and creative sectors through interdisciplinary research and philanthropic projects.

In 2024, CRCS coordinated a range of initiatives linking culture, environment, memory, and innovation, including:

• the international conference L’Europa e i suoi altrove (2 May 2024), an interdisciplinary dialogue on Europe’s cultural imagination and its global “others”, organised under the patronage of the Società Italiana per lo Studio della Storia Contemporanea (SISSCO);
• the public lecture La macchina del tempo: quando l’Europa ha iniziato a scrivere la storia del mondo (22 May 2024) by historian Serge Gruzinski (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, EHESS);
• the documentary project Il libro delle ombre, developed with RuniPace and directed by Giuseppe Carrieri, exploring human rights, peace, and environmental sustainability through the testimonies of hibakusha, survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki;
• the project Memoria della Terra, building an oral history archive and documentary on community archaeology in the Sierra Ancash (Peru), in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Museo delle Culture di Milano, and IULM’s Human Lab and IulMovieLab.

Key data-driven and internationally collaborative projects (2024)

Università IULM also participates in international collaboration on gathering and measuring data for the SDGs through other research projects, below are some examples from 2024:

SDG 8 & 11 – Integrated Mobility and Urban Sustainability

• Predisposizione questionari e analisi dei dati per la stima della domanda multimodale integrata AMT Trenitalia: Designs statistical questionnaires and models to analyse multimodal transport demand, revenue distribution, and the economic effects of fare-free mobility for seniors. Data collected with AMT and Trenitalia support evidence-based policy for equitable and sustainable public-transport planning.

SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

• La Nautica in Cifre 2023-2024: In partnership with Confindustria Nautica, the project builds two national reports ( Log and Monitor) analysing the boating industry’s economic impact, labour trends, and sustainability profile, providing official sectoral statistics for policy and trade use.

SDG 10 – Reducing Inequalities

• Misurare la deprivazione nelle regioni italiane e spagnole: un confronto internazionale: Compares socio-economic deprivation across Italian and Spanish regions (NUTS-2), using Eurostat data, PCA and cluster analysis to build multidimensional deprivation indexes including digital inclusion metrics—informing cohesion policy.

SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Cultural Heritage

• Linee guida per lo sviluppo turistico della destinazione Luino: Combines qualitative and quantitative research (focus groups, SGDMÓ flow analysis, SWOT benchmarking) to define strategic guidelines for regenerative, high-end tourism on Lake Maggiore, integrating community and environmental data.
• Arte gratuita. Guida ai monumenti pubblici di Milano: Produces an open database and geo-referenced inventory of Milan’s public monuments across nine municipalities, enhancing cultural-heritage accessibility and civic engagement metrics.
• Creatività urbana, eredità coloniale e politiche di patrimonializzazione in Africa Occidentale: Conducts ethnographic and urban-geographic fieldwork in Cape Verde and Senegal on creativity, colonial heritage, and patrimonialisation, building qualitative datasets that link cultural policy to inclusive urban development.

SDG 9 & 17 – Digital Innovation and AI Ethics

• AI MAGISTER. Polo di innovazione digitale: National hub (European Digital Innovation Hub candidate) joining 12 Italian and EU universities. IULM AI Lab leads training and assessment on AI adoption for SMEs and municipalities, generating datasets on digital maturity and skill gaps.

SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth

• GIG UP 2: Creates a national Observatory on Gig Workers, using machine-learning and NLP tools to analyse job platform data and survey gig-economy professionals, producing longitudinal datasets on employment trends and digital labour.

SDG 15 – Life on Land / Cultural and Natural Heritage

• Sounding Images – Screening Sounds (SISS): PNRR – NextGenerationEU project (2024-2026) led by Conservatorio Bonporti with IULM and IED Milan; combines artistic production, digital heritage scanning, and data visualisation to map Italy’s cultural landscapes and audio-visual heritage.

SDG 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

• Dentro la permacrisis: rappresentazione mediale del conflitto in Medio Oriente: qualitative media study analysing socio-narrative and iconographic representations of the Middle-East conflict (2023-24), producing thematic datasets on crisis framing and public perception.
• I valori della controcultura nell’era della deglobalizzazione: maps political and artistic engagement networks in the platform society, examining how countercultural values and digital media interact, contributing to datasets on cultural innovation and democratic participation.

Together, these projects demonstrate IULM’s role in collecting, harmonising, and disseminating SDG-relevant data across multiple domains — mobility, digitalisation, tourism, culture, gender, and governance.
By sharing methodologies and indicators with ministries, research networks, and European agencies, the University contributes to a culture of open science, transparency, and evidence-based sustainability policy advancing  the SDGs.