Labs, practice courses and field activities

The Master's degree program in Agrifood Sustainability benefits from many internal laboratories and external collaborations with public Institutions and private companies. This allows us to provide students with practical activities and excursions, and increase the students’ exposure to the job market.

Teaching staff at Agrifood Sustainability has stable collaboration with the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Ente Nazionale Risi (National Rice Authority), The Millennium Seed Bank in the United Kingdom and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norway), managed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust. The Master's course benefits also from the collaboration with more than 20 local farms and companies, some of which are the destination of our excursions.

See our labs and research facilities.

The University of Pavia's Plant Germplasm Bank 

The University of Pavia's Plant Germplasm Bank is a facility dedicated to the long-term ex situ conservation of threatened plant species, both wild and agronomic. A special focus is placed on wild plants useful to humans, including food and medicinal species of the Italian wild flora, wild relatives of cultivated species (CWRs), and traditional local agricultural and horticultural cultivars. In addition to its primary conservation mission, the Germplasm Bank also provides seed storage services for agricultural companies in specific cases, develops projects for the sustainable use of plant genetic resources, and provides seed samples of target species for specific research and conservation projects.  

For further details: Prof. Graziano Rossi, graziano.rossi@unipv.it

The Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Lazzaro Spallanzani” has the facilities 

for in vitro culture of plant cells, tissues/organs, and for the propagation of plant material (two growth chambers with thermostatic and light/dark controlled conditions, laminar flow cabinets/tissue culture hoods, rooms for nutrient media preparation, autoclaves), plant growth and assessment of seed germination in controlled environment (germination chambers) and in soil (greenhouse for experimental research).

For further details: Prof. Alma Balestrazzi, alma.balestrazzi@unipv.it

Laboratory of Dendroecology (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences)

 has a deep experience in tree-ring science, especially focused on climate influence on tree growth and productivity, taking into account both climate trend and extreme events. Moreover the DendroLab is involved in dendroecological studies about forest dynamics and disturbance regime assessment. It has an in-depth expertise in tree-ring network management on several tree species, both conifers and broadleaves. 

For further details: Prof. Paola Nola, paola.nola@unipv.it

Laboratory of Engineering Geology and Geotechnics (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences) is addressed to:

• monitoring and assessment of rainfall-induced landslide hazard;
• use of remote sensing techniques for the characterisation, monitoring and sustainable management of aquifers in water-stressed areas.

Activities performed:

• Geotechnical and hydrological characterisation of soils affected by shallow landslides and subsidence (physical, hydrological and mechanical properties).
• Study of agricultural soil management techniques to increase the resilience of vineyards against extreme rainfall or drought events and reduce the occurrence of shallow landslides to limit damages to agrosystems and the loss of organic matter.
• Study of the shear strength and deformability of soils for slope stability, taking into account the role of vegetation and the root reinforcement.
• Study of swelling and shrinkage of clayey soils (swelling pressure and free swell).
• In situ hydrological and geotechnical monitoring (Ksat, Infiltration, Roots, density and penetrometric resistance, shear stress, cohesion, water content, pore water pressure, electrical conductivity) to identify the mechanisms that trigger shallow landslides and the water stress.

For further details: Prof. Claudia Meisina, claudia.meisina@unipv.it

The Laboratory of Geomatics LABGEO (Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture)  has over 40 years of experience in land surveying and geoinformation. Its research and teaching activity cover classical topography, GPS/GNSS, photogrammetry with imagery acquired by drones or planes, LiDAR, remote sensing, and GIS. 

The Laboratory has gained significant experience, among other topics and applications, in agricultural domains such as crop monitoring, precision farming, and environmental management. Over the years, the Laboratory has developed significant multidisciplinary collaborations with specialists in agronomy, geology, engineering, urban planning, public health and epidemiology. 

For further details: Prof. Vittorio Casella, vittorio.casella@unipv.it

Nutraceutical & Food Chemical-Toxicological Analysis Laboratory (Department of Drug Sciences) 

features more than 20 years of experience in the development of extraction and analysis methods for the recovery of bioactive components from food and food wastes/by-products, and more recently in the setup of in vitro static and dynamic methods for food components’ bioaccessibility and bioavailability investigation. The Lab also supports companies in the development of food supplements and functional foods. The Lab chief is the academic director of a post-degree Master (Master level II) "Nutraceuticals and food supplements: from raw material to marketing with clinical application" and the chair of “Autumn School in Food Chemistry”.

For further details: Prof. Adele Papetti, adele.papetti@unipv.it