Intelligently tempering the increasingly devastating effects of global warming is an issue of utmost urgency from a social and political point of view, but the challenge is fundamentally played out in the scientific field. A profound understanding of the geological processes that control climate evolution represents a necessary way to recognize and quantify anthropogenic effects and plan effective mitigation actions.

The basic objective of the Departments of Excellence Project 2023-2027 (named TECLA) is the integration of classical concepts and methods of geology, based on the qualitative and quantitative description of natural phenomena, with the most advanced monitoring and modeling techniques to fully understand the evolution of climate and identify concrete remedies.

The main initiatives of the TECLA Project include the creation of a new Isotopic Geochemistry Laboratory, the study of techniques for the reduction of greenhouse gases and for the exploitation of geothermal potential in collaboration with ENI and ENEL Green Power, the creation on the ground of pilot teaching and research laboratories for environmental monitoring, as well as the strengthening of existing research centers and advanced training activities.

The Department's staff will be strengthened with the hiring of new teachers, researchers, and technicians in the field of geochemistry and provenance, monitoring, and mitigation techniques in marine and continental environments.

The overall budget of the TECLA project (5 years) is 8,675,000.

The effects of climate change are before everyone's eyes: rising temperatures, melting of glaciers and polar ice caps, rising sea levels, intensification of meteorological processes with catastrophic effects such as hurricanes, floods, and landslides.

The project of the Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences aims to suggest effective mitigation and adaptation actions through an interdisciplinary approach. Knowing the past better is a fundamental prerequisite to understand the present, and thus being able to hypothesize plausible future scenarios that help evaluate the impact of climate change on the environment and society.

The loan funds will be used to develop two high-performance infrastructures (Gemma and Provenance) and enhance two existing ones (EuroCold and the Interdepartmental Center for Electron Microscopy).

GEMMA (Geo Environmental Measuring and Monitoring from multiple plAtforms) is an innovative infrastructure for the acquisition and processing of data from on-site and remote instruments for multidisciplinary applications at different scales of investigation.

PROVENANCE is a new research center that will carry out high-resolution provenance studies.

The Department's staff will be strengthened with the recruitment of new teachers and researchers with specific skills on climate change issues.

The overall value of the project (5 years) is €10,155,050.