Students’ Green Challenge 2ª edizione: giovani talenti al servizio della mobilità sostenibile Immaginate una sala piena di studenti e studentesse di percorsi di laurea multidisciplinari, pronti a dare forma al futuro della sostenibilità. Questa è l’essenza della Students’ Green Challenge, giunta alla sua seconda edizione. Organizzata dallo Spoke 2 di NODES e dal suo Ateneo capofila Università degli studi di Torino (UniTo), in collaborazione con il CRF (Centro Ricerche Fiat) del Gruppo Stellantis, questa iniziativa ha riunito menti brillanti e idee audaci per affrontare una  sfida ambiziosa: ripensare i materiali utilizzati nella mobilità elettrica per renderli più sostenibili.  

On 21st November 2024, the beautiful Kyoto Room of the Environment Park in Turin hosted the 5th stage of the Round GRIP series of meetings, dedicated to the Circular Transformations of Mineral and Organic Waste. It was an afternoon full of speeches, comparisons and inspiring moments organised by Spoke 2 within the GRIP project, with the support of the research activities of Research Module 1 (RM1).

Spoke 2 attendance at the UniTO stand at Ecomondo 2024, from Tuesday 5th November to Friday 8th November, highlighted the strategic role of the Spoke in the green and digital transition. In the beautiful Rimini setting, the Spoke had the opportunity to present innovative projects, organise a highly relevant conference on Water Reuse in cooperation with UniTO and Butterfly Area, and create new #synergies.   Water Reuse conference: a focus on water reuse The conference ‘The reuse of treated wastewater: a tool to mitigate water scarcity and climate change’ explored concrete solutions to address one of the most critical global challenges. After the greetings of Vice-Rector Cristina Prandi, Prof. Alessandra Bianco Prevot illustrated UniTO's Water Reuse Platform, highlighting the importance of collaborative strategies to create virtuous supply chains. Among the topics discussed: European policies and opportunities: Roberta Maffettone (European Commission) presented a regulatory framework to incentivise sustainable practices. Solutions for sustainability: Errico Stravato (Sogesid SpA) and Daniel Novarino (SMAT) explored the potential of water reuse as a concrete response to climate change. Applied research: Innovative projects such as IRRISAFE, which optimises risk management in urban wastewater use, and WalNUT, which supports water recovery in agriculture, showed how research can turn problems into opportunities. Focus on industry and agriculture: SMARTWATER demonstrated how to integrate wastewater reuse in the textile industry, while talks such as that of Elena Anselmetti (Regione Piemonte) explored the reuse of wastewater in agriculture for innovative applications. The conference emphasised water reuse as a pillar of a circular economy, demonstrating that innovation and collaboration between universities, institutions and businesses are the key to tackling water scarcity and ensuring long-term sustainability.   The future Ecomondo was a unique opportunity to strengthen the link between Spoke and universities, businesses and other institutions, highlighting that only through collaboration can global challenges be addressed and a more sustainable future promoted. See you at Ecomondo 2025!

On 30 and 31 October, a delegation of 9 people from the following research centres Centro di Ricerca di Jülich, Aachen Technical University, Competence Center Bio4MatPro, Technical University of Hamburg, Institute for Technology and Innovation Management visiting thanks to the German Regional Agency AGIT visited Turin as part of the NODES ecosystem, at the premises of the Department of Biotechnology of the University of Turin. Thursday opened with institutional greetings and a presentation of the University of Turin's research ecosystem by the Vice-Rector for Research Cristina Prandi. The floor was then passed to Tiziana Dell'Olmo, representative of the Piedmont Region, who presented a speech entitled: ‘Piedmont Region: strategies for technology transfer and innovation in the Bioeconomy field’.