Three new FIS projects for Luiss Host Institution
Luiss is the host institution for three projects—two Starting Grants and one Advanced Grant—funded by the Italian Science Fund (FIS), an initiative of the Ministry of University and Research. The fund was established to support projects with a high scientific content and to align the Italian system with the European standards set by the ERC.
After receiving funding from their respective home universities – the University of Florence for Professor Donatella Selva and the University of Pisa for Professor Vincenzo Lomonaco – the two Principal Investigators of the Starting Grants chose to transfer their projects and begin their scientific work at Luiss, confirming the university’s ability to attract competitive and interdisciplinary research. The Advanced Grant, on the other hand, was awarded to Principal Investigator Kristina Stoeckl, a Full Professor of Sociology and a member of the Luiss Faculty since 2023.
At Luiss, Professor Donatella Selva is developing the project “MAEDINA – Media, Audiences and Emotions in Driving Immigration News Avoidance.” This project explores the phenomenon of news avoidance, with a particular focus on immigration-related news, integrating audience practices, media representations, and – for the first time – journalists’ perceptions and strategies. The MAEDINA project also places particular emphasis on the role of emotions in the processes of producing, disseminating, and consuming information.
Meanwhile, Professor Vincenzo Lomonaco brings the project “COLLAGE – Continual, Decentralized Compositionality for Sustainable Artificial Intelligence” to Luiss. Dedicated to developing an innovative paradigm for AI, the project focuses on continuous, decentralized, and compositional systems aimed at reducing computational costs and creating a “circular economy” for artificial intelligence.
In addition to these transfers, the FIS 3 grant was recently awarded to the project “POLISMOD - A political sociology of religious moderation in 21st-century Europe,” submitted by Professor Kristina Stoeckl and focused on studying religious moderates in Europe and their responses to contemporary cultural conflicts.
Today, the Italian Science Fund is the primary national initiative dedicated to fundamental research, focused on generating new theoretical knowledge and selecting projects of high scientific value. Through its three funding streams – Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grant – the FIS supports initiatives that contribute to advancing knowledge on the international stage.
The launch of these three new projects marks a significant milestone for our University, which continues to be the preferred location for developing advanced research in strategic areas for technological innovation, society, and public communication.