University of Florence
PhD Course in Sustainable Management of Agricultural Forestry and Food Resources
Florence, Italy
DURATION
3 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
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TUITION FEES
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STUDY FORMAT
Blended
Introduction
The Ph.D. program in Sustainable Management of Agricultural Forestry and Food Resources builds upon the long-term experience in research and teaching of the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of the University of Florence. The Ph.D. is a 3-year full-time period of learning and research offering students scientific knowledge in the fields of agricultural and forestry economics, forest planning and monitoring, forest operations, wood science, agricultural and forestry engineering, food sciences, and technologies. PhD students will acquire the theoretical and methodological approaches needed for building innovation in planning and managing agricultural, forest, and food systems, seen as complex socio-ecological systems.
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
The Academic Board of each course, on the basis of the list of enrolled students, provides for the allocation of scholarships. The annual amount of the scholarship is € 16.243,00, with disbursement in deferred monthly instalments (payment is made on the last non-business day of the month).
The amount of the scholarship is increased by 50% for any authorized periods of stay abroad for research activities related to the thesis project, up to a maximum of 18 months.
To this amount must be added, for the first, second and third year of the course, the budget for research activities in Italy and abroad equal to 10% of the amount of the scholarship, for a minimum amount of € 4.872,90.
Scholarship holders are required to register with INPS (National Institute of Social Security).
PhD students admitted by the Academic Board to the following year of the course will receive instructions on how to enrol by email from the PhD Office.
Curriculum
The Ph.D. program in Sustainable Management of Agricultural Forestry and Food Resources has four curricula:
Agricultural and Forest Engineering (IAF)
The training and research program aims at improving skills in agricultural hydraulics and bioengineering interventions, water resource management in conditions of scarcity, water saving in agriculture, mechanization of agriculture, precision agriculture, agri-food supply chains, energetic use of biomass, energy efficiency improvements in agroforestry systems, design of rural buildings with innovative and sustainable criteria, sustainable building materials, monitoring of agro-forestry territory, digital mapping, use of geographic information systems for rural planning and wildlife management
Food Science and Technology (FS&T)
The Food Science and Technology program offers Ph.D. students the possibility of facing a broad area of research interest in food and food processing optimization and innovation. Sustainability and health are the main pillars on which the training in the research of our PhD students is built.
The optimization and control of processes as well as consumer preferences represent the main fields of interest in the context of the production and consumption of food and beverages.
Forest economics, planning and wood science (EPFSL)
The aim is to train students for independent work in original research and scholarship in the following fields: theoretical and methodological approaches for sustainable forest management; planning for biodiversity conservation and enhancement of forest ecosystem services; qualitative and quantitative assessment of forest ecosystems, including forest inventory, remote sensing and forest modeling; sustainable and low environmental impact forest operations; improvement of systems and strategies for the protection against forest fires including the definition of models and risk maps; wood supply chain including wood products; use of wood for structural and innovative products; methodology for the assessment and conservation of historical and artistic wood artifacts, including finite element modeling.
Wine economics and rural development (EVSR)
The educational and research activities focus on:
- The analysis of the efficiency of the wine sector, from the estate environment to the local agri-food system;
- the analysis of rural development issues, emphasizing those tools and methodologies that enable the definition and interpretation of integrated local development models;
- The analysis of sustainable development and multifunctionality in the rural context, both in terms of the competitive development of farms/estates and in the protection of the quality of life in these territories.