-With Japan's JAMSTEK, Tsukuba University-

 OSAKA, Sept. 26, 2025/ANSA=Kyodo JBN/ --

The Italy Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka has hosted the signature of two new agreements involving the National Research Council (CNR), Italy's largest public research body.

The first memorandum was forged with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and the second with Tsukuba University.

The event was opened by the Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, Ambassador Mario Vattani.

The Memorandum of Cooperation with JAMSTEK is the outcome of an initiative taken after a meeting held on October 29, 2024 during which the international relations unit at the National Research Council welcomed a delegation of the Japanese Agency, laying the groundwork for a structured collaboration on themes of common interest.

The agreement provides for stronger bilateral cooperation on joint projects, researcher mobility programs and the development of common activities in the field of oceanography, marine geophysics and climate modelling, as well as the use of common infrastructures.

"This agreement will improve and promote our cooperation in the exchange of researchers and in kickstarting new joint projects", stated Francesco Petracchini, director of the CNR's Department of Earth System Science and Environmental Technologies.

"We firmly believe in this accord and we are certain that, in the future, we will start new projects and we will be able to share data and information on important themes and programs such as the deep sea, climate change, biodiversity and many others", added Petracchini.

JAMSTEC was represented by Professor Shuichi Kodaira, the Executive director.

The Memorandum of understanding signed with Tsukuba University, meanwhile, is aimed at favouring scientific cooperation in research areas of common interest, through joint research programs, visits and personal exchanges, as well as the creation of a common platform for the development of strategic initiatives, consolidating a collaboration that has been active for over two decades between the Research Institute for GEO-Hydrological Protection of CNR and the Japanese university's Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences.

Tsukuba University was represented by Professor Shuntaro Uchida, a member of the Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences.

As part of the event 'Knowledge as the key to protection', organized at the Italy Pavilion by the Department of Earth System Sciences and Technologies for the Environment (CNR-DSSTTA), Italian and Japanese experts met to discuss five key environmental themes: biodiversity, the sea, polar regions, climate change and natural hazards.

In addition, the theme of 'environmental memory' was explored from an artistic standpoint with the exhibit 'Liquid Cartographies' including six audiovisual contributions by artists Elena Bellantoni, Elena Mazzi, Pamela Pintus and Mariagrazia Pontorno, focusing on the issue of the ocean as a space of memory, travels, a threshold of conflicts and transformations, screened during the course of the day on Friday, September 19, in a mosaic of different artistic visions.

The event was also attended by Lidia Armelao, Director of the Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technology, Maria Elena Martinotti, Head of Institutional Affairs at the Department of Earth System Sciences and Technologies for the Environment of CNR, and Gianluigi Serianni, Scientific Attaché of the Italian Embassy in Tokyo.

Source: General Commissioner’s Office of Italy for Expo 2025 Osaka