Advisory board

Within the framework of the PSD 2023–2027 and the Departmental Strategic Plan 2025–2027, a dedicated Advisory Board has been established, in continuity with the experimentation carried out during the PSD 2018–2022 and incorporating adjustments resulting from the monitoring of the previous Board’s functioning. The Advisory Board holds periodic meetings aimed at a strategic dialogue with stakeholders to ensure the quality of the Department’s teaching and research activities.

The plan foresees the involvement of ten to twelve members: typically 1–3 from academia, 2–4 from public institutions, 1–3 from the business sector, and 1–3 from think tanks and mass media. This structure is intended to cover the full range of expertise required to support and improve the Department’s activities over the project years. The Department therefore launched a process to select the members of the new Advisory Board, choosing individuals who currently hold or have held significant positions in local institutions, public and private enterprises, think tanks, academic institutions, and mass media, as specified below.

Composition

The process of identifying Advisory Board members began in 2024 and, in February 2025, was shared with the Department Council, as well as with degree programme coordinators and the Departmental Quality Committee, in order to gather suggestions and feedback on the profiles involved and to be involved.

This process was coordinated by the representative of the Social Partners and Career Guidance Committee, in collaboration with the Department’s management, to ensure broad participation and constant monitoring of decisions.

The criteria used for the selection of members were as follows:

• institutional coverage from the local to the regional, national, and supranational levels;

• gender representation;

• expertise encompassing both substantive and methodological skills (ranging from international relations to governance and media), relevant to the Department’s degree programmes and its numerous ongoing research projects.

On 13 June 2025, the Department Council approved the composition of the new Advisory Board as follows:

• Giuseppe ABBAMONTE (European Commission)

• Giampiero BERGAMI (Financial Cooperative Consortium for Development)

• Anna Lisa BONI (Councillor, Municipality of Bologna)

• Mario CALABRESI (Chora Media)

• Stefano FELTRI (Appunti)

• Giovanni GINOCCHINI (Fondazione Innovazione Urbana)

• Veronica LENZI (Emilia-Romagna Region)

• Gian Guido NOBILI, Director of the Department for Urban Security and Legality, Emilia-Romagna Region, and of the European Forum for Urban Security

• Paolo ONOFRI (Prometeia)

• Monica PEREZ (Istat)

• Nathalie TOCCI (IAI)

Functions and Operating Procedures

The Advisory Board aims to help maintain high standards in teaching and research, while enhancing the social impact of departmental activities. Tasks are assigned either to the Board as a whole or to sub-groups, depending on the expertise required and the documents under review.

In its plenary composition, the Board is expected to meet at least once a year to review the Department’s planning and monitoring documents, including those relating to the strategic plan and the Excellence Project, internationalisation data, relations with social partners, and communication. Strategies concerning recruitment and direct international appointments of academic staff are also shared. Meetings may be held online or in hybrid form.

Additional meetings may be convened on a yearly basis if necessary. Based on the monitoring of the previous Board’s activities, which highlighted the complexity of scheduling plenary sessions, it was deemed appropriate to allow for restricted-format meetings, with flexible membership depending on the agenda. For example, discussions may focus on the development and enhancement of teaching programmes with a national or international profile, or consultations with stakeholders on activities specific to the Forlì or Bologna locations.

Documents may also be shared by email, with feedback collected asynchronously. In such cases, the Vice Chair for Teaching or other SPS representatives may convene follow-up meetings. The participation of delegates for internationalisation, the representative of the Social Partners and Career Guidance Committee, degree programme coordinators, student representatives, and technical-administrative staff is calibrated according to the topics under discussion in each consultation.

Background: The 2018–2022 Advisory Board Experience

The current Advisory Board builds on the experience of the “Departments of Excellence” initiative established by Law 232 of 11 December 2016 and promoted by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR), during which SPS had already created an Advisory Board composed of leading figures from institutions, business, journalism, culture, and civil society.

That Board provided SPS with strategic feedback on departmental activities and contributed to strengthening ties with the external socio-economic environment.

Its composition was as follows:

• Monica Albertoni, Political Science Editor, Il Mulino Publishing House

• Giampiero Bergami, CEO, Banca Popolare di Bari

• Anna Lisa Boni, Secretary-General, Eurocities

• Aldo Cazzullo, Senior Reporter, Corriere della Sera

• Giampiero Massolo, Chairman of Fincantieri and of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, former Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director of the DIS

• Gian Guido Nobili, Director of the Department for Urban Security and Legality, Emilia-Romagna Region, and of the European Forum for Urban Security

• Romano Prodi, President of the Foundation for Peoples, former Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, President of IRI, President of the European Commission, and Prime Minister of Italy

• Sara Roversi, Founder and President of Youcan Group

• Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali and Special Advisor to the EU High Representative and Vice-President of the European Commission

• Matteo M. Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna

Two meetings were held, providing a qualified forum for discussion on SPS’s results, challenges, and perspectives, with a specific focus on research, teaching, graduate employability, and relations with external stakeholders, including within the framework of the Department’s third mission. The meetings were also attended by the delegates for internationalisation, the Chair of the Joint Teaching Committee, degree programme coordinators, and the then Rector of UNIBO, depending on the topics under discussion.

The dialogue with the Advisory Board confirmed the quality of SPS’s path, while offering suggestions to increase the social impact of its activities, to improve relations with the labour market, and to inform the redesign of teaching and third mission initiatives.

The Board’s last meeting, in 2022, focused not only on the positive results of the 2018–2022 Excellence Project but also on the Department’s national and international positioning and on strategic themes for the 2023–2027 Excellence Project. Discussions centred on four key issues:

• transformations in international politics;

• political and social impacts of scientific and technological innovation;

• challenges to representative democracy;

• inequalities, discrimination, and migration.

The feedback received during that meeting proved highly valuable for the drafting of the PSD 2023–2027.