PhD-SDC
MULTI DISCIPLINARY EVENT
29th June – 1st July 2026
"GIORGIO FUÀ" FACULTY OF ECONOMICS,
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF MARCHE, ANCONA
"ONE HEALTH BEYOND THE CLAIM"
Facing the complexity, exploring the interconnections between climate, ecosystems, social and human well-being.
The MD Event “One Health, Beyond the Claim” provides PhD candidates with an interdisciplinary learning experience focused on the complex interconnections between climate change, ecosystems, human health, and social wellbeing. From June 29th to July 1st, Ancona becomes a hub for sustainability, hosting this multidisciplinary event at the "G. Fuà" Faculty of Economics of the Polytechnic University of Marche.
Organized within the framework of the National PhD Programme in Sustainable Development and Climate Change (PhD SDC), the initiative invites participants to move beyond simplistic narratives and disciplinary boundaries to explore the real complexity of sustainability challenges and resilience pathways. Coordinated by the IUSS School of Pavia and supported by a network of more than 60 Italian universities, the PhD SDC aims to train a new generation of researchers capable of addressing climate complexity through interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration.
The programme combines keynote lectures delivered by international experts, networking opportunities, and collaborative activities designed to foster the integration of diverse disciplinary perspectives. More than a series of seminars, the event serves as a laboratory of ideas where doctoral candidates engage directly with contemporary sustainability challenges, developing the skills needed to contribute to the transition towards a net-zero and climate-resilient society.
A key component of the programme is the EU Project Lab – European Project Challenge, an interdisciplinary group activity in which doctoral students work in multidisciplinary teams to design a simulated Horizon Europe-style research proposal addressing a sustainability or climate-related challenge. Through this experience, participants strengthen project design, teamwork, and science communication skills while learning to integrate different scientific approaches into coherent research strategies.
The PhD SDC thus functions as a distributed research infrastructure, where multidisciplinarity is not merely an aspiration but an operational method for responding to environmental and societal urgencies. The proposals developed during the EU Project Lab are evaluated by a panel of experts according to criteria inspired by Horizon Europe—Excellence, Interdisciplinarity, Impact, and Implementation—with a Best EU Project Challenge Award presented to the winning team.