The new Luiss website has won two Lovie Awards for digital excellence
The new website of Luiss Guido Carli University has won two awards at the sixteenth edition of the Lovie Awards: the Bronze Lovie, awarded by the international jury, and the People’s Lovie, voted for by internet users. The European award celebrates digital excellence.
The University's portal was entered in the Websites & Mobile Sites – School/University category. The jury of the IADAS (International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences) awarded it the Bronze Lovie, while the online vote from users secured it the People’s Lovie. The Lovie Awards, organised by the same body that presents the Webby Awards, recognise the best websites, apps, campaigns, and digital projects created in Europe each year. In 2026, they received nearly 1,000 entries from over 35 countries, with only 30% of the projects making it through to the final stage.
This double accolade comes just a few weeks after another international first. In fact, at the end of September, the Luiss portal won the Education category at the International Splash Awards 2026 in Rotterdam, becoming the first project from an Italian university to claim the title.
Live since June 2026, the new website has reshaped the University’s entire digital presence. The navigation, designed primarily for smartphones, offers tailored pathways for students, prospective undergraduates, faculty, alumni, and businesses. The portal also incorporates a conversational search system powered by artificial intelligence and grounded in official content. The new information architecture has streamlined the web ecosystem and made it easier to access information. The project cut publication times by 70% and boosted performance tenfold, ensuring 99.9% service availability.
The platform is built on the University’s first Design System, developed by the Luiss team in collaboration with SparkFabrik. Altura Labs provided strategic consulting, content architecture, and governance. The system brings together the digital experience elements of the entire university ecosystem into a single, multi-brand library, built on an open-source, cloud-native infrastructure that gives the University full digital sovereignty.
Massimo Angelini, Luiss’s Director of External Affairs, Corporate Communication & Partnerships, said: “Winning both the jury’s award and the public’s award confirms that we made the right choice in building the University’s website around the people who use it every day. The People's Lovie, in fact, is an achievement that honours the Luiss community, to whom we extend our thanks for their support. It is with great pleasure that we share this with colleagues from all the University teams who worked on this project.”
Stefano Mainardi, CEO of SparkFabrik, also commented: “It’s a great source of satisfaction for the whole team to see an Italian project recognised twice in Europe within the space of a few weeks – first by the Drupal community and now at the Lovies. The People's Lovie holds special significance for us, as it comes from those who use the site every day. It confirms that the technical choices – from the design system to AI-powered search – result in a better experience for students and prospective students.”