The joint PhD course in Agri-food Science, Technology and Biotechnology is proposed as part of the educational offer of UNIGreen - The green European University, an initiative supported under the Erasmus+ Programme, European Universities. UNIgreen is a thematic alliance of higher education institutions with a specific focus on the topics of sustainable agriculture, green biotechnology and environmental and life sciences, which are key areas of expertise to achieve a resource-efficient, circular, green and climate-neutral economy by 2050 and to increase the resilience and sustainability of our agri-food system.
The PhD course is developed in the areas of production, processing, quality and safety of raw materials and food. The teaching activity facilitates the transfer of knowledge through the course.
The high profile of the lecturers, their well-established collaboration with national and foreign research institutions and the availability of adequate funding guarantee the quality of the course.
Some of the lecturers are mainly involved in the agricultural field, covering the various areas of plant and animal production, with a focus on cultivation, breeding and disease control techniques, with the utmost respect for the environment, the consumer, the needs of the agri-food industry, the biological properties of active ingredients and product quality. Molecular genetics, a powerful means of selecting varieties to meet these needs, completes the expertise.
Other lecturers carry out their research mainly in the food sector, focusing on process and product innovation through the integrated use of food technologies, microbiology, biochemistry, chemistry, molecular biology, univariate and multivariate techniques for product and process optimisation and monitoring, evaluation of the quality of raw materials and their suitability for processing, innovative technologies in food packaging, as well as aspects of human nutrition, also concerning the role of the gut microbiota and its impact on health.
The course includes teaching and research training activities, with a three-year training pathway for a total commitment assessable in 180 CFU. The course includes research activities in advanced topics in the field, seminar activities, participation in monographic courses and scientific conferences, advanced teaching courses, as well as internships at the laboratories of the course venues and in other laboratories abroad, not limited to those offered by the Members of the UNIgreen Alliance.

The high profile of the Tutors, their well-established collaborations with national and international research institutions, and the availability of adequate funds guarantee the quality of doctoral students' training.
All teaching activities, seminars and the final thesis are compulsorily conducted in English.
The training project provides for a total number of teaching hours in excess of the minimum number of hours required, so that each doctoral student can follow the teachings most relevant to the topics of his or her interest, dividing them over the three years of the doctoral program on the basis of his or her training needs, but in such a way as to ensure an average annual number of at least 20 hours. In addition, a course in scientific English, taught by a native speaker, is proposed and shared with other doctoral courses in our own University. The minimum number of CFU provided for face-to-face teaching is 30, as described on the “Educational Plan” page of the Course website, while the remaining 150 CFU include the research activity carried out for the preparation and writing of the thesis.