FIT – Trieste International Foundation for the Progress and Freedom of Science

FIT supports scientific and technological initiatives, fosters relationships between universities and research centers, and strengthens local and international connections.
Motto: Freedom for the Sciences, Sciences for Freedom
The Trieste International Foundation for the Progress and Freedom of the Sciences (FIT) has the following objectives:

to promote and foster progress, freedom, and the dissemination of the sciences and their peaceful applications, by recommending, promoting, and supporting national and international scientific and technological initiatives, including through the establishment of new organizations;

• to promote and enhance the scientific and technological application activities of local universities and research institutions or their affiliated operational units, including by fostering their relationships and collaboration with all similar institutions in Italy and worldwide, particularly with emerging countries;
• to promote and enhance Trieste’s cultural and economic relations with the rest of Italy and all other countries internationally, as well as to leverage natural and professional resources, including through collaboration with national and international research centers;

Since 2021, FIT has served as the administrative secretariat of IUPAP, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics: an international non-governmental organization representing the global physics community. IUPAP was founded in 1922 and has its headquarters in Geneva; its purpose is to promote pure and applied physics, to facilitate cooperation among physicists worldwide, and to promote the use of physics for the benefit of humanity.
The administrative headquarters is in Trieste at FIT, which provides IUPAP with logistical and administrative support; the two organizations collaborate closely to promote scientific research and the dissemination of physics in Trieste and around the world. The IUPAP headquarters in Trieste is located in the Porto Vecchio Electrical Substation.
www.iupap.org

Since 2022, FIT has also been collaborating with the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS) on a special research project related to the Laboratory for Quantitative Sustainability (TLQS). The laboratory draws on the collaboration of young OGS research fellows and faculty members from the Universities of Trieste and Udine, the ICTP, and SISSA, in addition to OGS itself. The research activities, proposed for the first four-year period, focus on scientific modeling applied to the following themes:
study of the blue planet for the sustainability of the marine economy
food and biodiversity for the health of the planet and its inhabitants
climate change and the environment
new data science in the service of sustainability and human ecology
energy transition and industrial processes
sustainability and social sciences, the right to sustainability, attention to diversity and inclusion, and the relationship between sustainability and social equity space-based tools for monitoring the Earth’s habitat.
www.quantitativesustainability.org

A three-year project to digitize and promote the FIT’s documentary heritage.

The project serves as an ideal methodological and creative workshop for students, art historians, curators, and researchers. It involves the digitization, classification, and archiving of documents contained in 200 archive folders, which document the origins of the “Trieste City of Science” project. The ultimate goal is to create a public exhibition of the most significant material: this exhibition could serve as the foundation for a subsequent immersive installation, where archival documents will interact with multimedia content, visual installations, and original video productions.

By contacting the FIT secretariat, students and researchers can have the opportunity to undertake internships, write theses based on the collected material, and perhaps actively collaborate on the development of the curatorial concept. Participating in this project means combining the rigor of scientific research with the most modern techniques of visual storytelling and museography, transforming Trieste’s historical memory into an experience open to all citizens, so that it is not lost over time.

In addition to contributions from supporting members, the project has also received a grant from the Casalis Foundation and is supported by the Region.