UNIUD RESILHub: a new advanced training school in resilience inaugurated in Gemona del Friuli

On 9 March 2026, the University of Udine officially inaugurated UNIUD RESILHub at the historic Palazzo Fantoni in Gemona del Friuli. The ribbon-cutting ceremony brought together institutional representatives including the University Rector Angelo Montanari, Mayor of Gemona del Friuli Roberto Revelant, Regional Councillor for Finance Barbara Zilli, Regional Councillor for Civil Protection Riccardo Riccardi, and Regional President Massimiliano Fedriga — a sign of the broad institutional support behind this new initiative.

UNIUD RESILHub is a laboratory-based advanced training school in resilience for sustainable development, conceived to complement traditional academic teaching with the active search for organisational models and concrete solutions to face increasingly complex global scenarios — including disasters of natural origin, pandemics, climate change, and socio-economic crises.

The school is established in close synergy with the UNESCO Chair on Intersectoral Safety for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience, and will be directed by Prof. Stefano Grimaz, holder of the Chair. As Grimaz emphasized at the inauguration, UNIUD RESILHub is built on a science-based and experience-based approach, combining scientific rigour with multisectoral real-world experience. The goal is to train professionals capable of reading and interpreting risk scenarios through a systemic lens, and of developing integrated territorial resilience solutions that are equally essential in peacetime, in emergencies, and in crisis situations.

The first course: Resilience Officer

The inaugural programme is an intensive course for Resilience Officer, co-designed with the Civil Protection of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is an advanced training pathway aimed at strengthening the cross-cutting competencies of highly specialised professionals operating within complex crisis management units, such as the Regional Emergency Committee (COREM). The course will conclude in May 2026 with a results workshop and certificate ceremony — a period that carries particular significance, as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Friuli earthquake, one of the most powerful symbols of reconstruction and community resilience in Italian history.

The choice of Gemona: a meaningful location

The location of UNIUD RESILHub is far from accidental. Gemona del Friuli, one of the towns most severely affected by the 1976 earthquake, has become over the decades a living example of resilience, reconstruction, and sustainable recovery. Hosting the school at Palazzo Fantoni — whose historic furnishings were generously made available by the Fondazione Friuli — reinforces the deep connection between the academic mission of the UNESCO Chair and the lived memory of the territory it serves.

Further training programmes on diverse resilience-related themes will follow in the coming months, all united by the common thread of resilience applied to the many challenges of sustainable development.