Generating a new idea of public mission for universities. a sustainable communication paradigm for community building

Abstract

In the last decades, at international level, universities have been facing an important and essential challenge: to define and promote a “sustainable” communication model able to aggregate different skills and resources—internal and external to the academic field—that effectively respond to the needs of the social and productive fabric. Starting from this idea, the Generating a New Idea of Public Mission for Universities research project, conceived and developed by the Center for Generative Communication (CfGC) of the University of Florence, aims to redefine the relationship between Research, Education, Third Mission and Territory. The conviction that drives this research work is, in fact, that universities can be characterized as a prototype for any enterprise. Universities, in fact, intervene at the same time on the front of education, research and development and can initiate a significant reflection on the modalities that today distinguish the definition of services, goods and products. These institutions create and disseminate a new model of sustainable communication that identifies the skills and resources necessary to generate truly innovative products, taking into account social and productive fabric needs. The main purpose of the project, therefore, is precisely to introduce a new vision of Technology Transfer as a means to: identify the needs coming from the society, highlight the critical issues that need to be solved, promote for the skills and human resources (before economic ones) necessary to find innovative solutions for the identified problems. After an introduction of the topic and an overview of its scientific context, this paper will examine two research experiences (Good practises of Job Placement and Generative Communication for CsaVRI) developed by the CfGC in the last few years. These research projects focus on the analysis of expressed and unexpressed needs within the Florentine university community: students, recent graduates, doctoral students, grant holders, teachers and, last but not least, the administrative staff. Through these experimentations, we wish to demonstrate that only through community building strategies, that enforce the dialogue between the different actors involved in communicative processes, is it possible to redefine the training offer, the way of doing research, technology transfer services and, consequently, the active role of the university as a driver of innovation throughout the territory.