A five-year collaboration agreement has been signed by Rector Giovanni Molari and Aetna Group S.p.A., strongly supported by the Group’s CEOs, Valentina and Enrico Aureli, and General Manager Federico Spallino. Given the successful track record and strategic opportunities of the many collaborations launched over the years, the University and Aetna have confirmed their intention to continue and further strengthen their partnership, with the goal of exploring new collaborative potentials in areas of mutual interest.
The agreement includes the implementation of specific collaborative research projects, as well as research and technical-scientific consulting activities funded by Aetna, scholarships, research grants and PhD fellowships, the creation of and shared access to research infrastructures and joint laboratories, dissemination of research results, and the organization of seminars and events focused on cutting-edge topics.
The collaboration will also extend to the educational sphere, with the organization of training activities for both the student community of Alma Mater and the company. It has been agreed that, for educational activities, the University may assign teaching roles—including roles with responsibility—to qualified experts selected annually by the company from among its staff, provided they meet the requirements set by the academic regulations of the relevant degree programs. Training activities will also be offered to Aetna employees, in line with the company’s continuing education policies, and will be delivered by University faculty.
There will also be job orientation initiatives aimed at facilitating the entry of Alma Mater students into the company, as well as the strengthening of international collaborations. Finally, the partnership will also focus on projects with a social and territorial impact, including development cooperation, sustainability, innovation and social communication initiatives, projects to enhance the University's historical, artistic, and cultural heritage, and sports-related initiatives.
In recent years, the University and Aetna have collaborated on various projects, including: research consulting with CIRI-MAM; the EU-funded H2020-Change2Twin project; the AETNA ACC2TWIN project on the topic “Development of a Digital Twin model for the deformation experienced by a pallet of products due to forces during transport”; CFD simulations for thermal ovens; Kinetodynamic Simulations of machine groups; thesis degree and mechatronics seminars held at the University as part of certain courses; and participation in several editions of the Unibo Career Day.
