VIU News
From Carlo Azeglio Ciampi’s legacy to Sergio Mattarella’s recognition: the people and partnerships that have shaped Venice International University.
By Umberto Vattani
At a meeting in London of university presidents from the G20 countries, I listened to my colleagues discuss transnational education. Leading universities were opening campuses abroad, taking their courses, faculty and teaching methods with them. When my turn came, I explained that on San Servolo things worked the other way round. We were not taking our university to the world: the world was coming to Venice.
From October 1, 2026, Ambassador Umberto Vattani moves into a new role as Honorary President of Venice International University, recognizing his distinguished and exceptional contribution to Venice International University over many years.
Ambassador Vattani leaves the presidency having profoundly shaped VIU’s development and international reach. When he became involved with the consortium, VIU brought together six member institutions; today, its community encompasses 23 universities and research institutions across 14 countries and four continents. Under his leadership, this expanding network has become not simply a larger consortium, but a broader space for encounters across borders, disciplines and sectors.
Professor Bernd Huber became President of Venice International University on October 1, 2026, beginning a new phase in the history of the international university consortium.
Following the celebrations marking VIU’s 30th anniversary in November 2025, Venice International University enters its fourth decade with a renewed focus on strengthening collaboration among its member universities and research institutions and exploring new opportunities for academic and research cooperation.
Professor Huber brings to the presidency a long-standing relationship with VIU. He has served on VIU’s Board of Directors since 2002 and headed its Strategic Committee from 2014 to 2026. His experience of international university cooperation, together with his distinguished academic career in economics and many years of leadership at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU), provides a strong foundation for his new role.
Connecting Europe Days bring together politicians, financial institutions, industry representatives, transport stakeholders and the European Commission to discuss concrete measures and exchange good practices on creating a competitive, resilient, safe and sustainable transport sector in Europe.
The Physical Internet Village session will bring together the following projects: IKIGAI, HOLOGISTICS, PILOTS, Future Proof Smart Logistics, DISCO, UNCHAIN, and Shift2Zero.
Venice, 26 August 2026 – Venice International University (VIU) and San Servolo Srl, both based on the island of San Servolo join in mourning the passing of Fabrizio Plessi, one of the foremost interpreters and pioneers of contemporary international art.
At the entrance to the island’s main building, visitors and students from around the world are welcomed by The Four Evangelists, a majestic site-specific installation conceived by the artist especially for this space. The work forms part of the “Sculpture Park” created by Venice International University on the island. It represents a perfect synthesis of his distinctive artistic language: an extraordinary dialogue that draws on and pays homage to the codes of the Byzantine mosaic tradition, reinterpreting them through the modernity of television screens and electronic flow.
The CIVITAS Forum 2026, the flagship event of the CIVITAS Initiative, will take place from 15-17 September 2026 in the coastal city of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Since 2003, the CIVITAS Forum has been a dynamic conference for smart, inclusive and sustainable urban mobility. The Forum welcomes city representatives, policymakers, practitioners, planners, academics and mobility enthusiasts from across Europe and beyond to exchange ideas, showcase innovation and build lasting connections.
This year, the theme of the CIVITAS Forum is, 'Roots & Routes: Moving Forward to Competitive, Connected and Resilient Urban Mobility!'. The programme will be structured around three umbrella topics (competitive, connected and resilient mobility) reflecting key priorities for sustainable urban mobility in Europe.
Pompei: Below the Clouds (Sotto le Nuvole in Italian), a film co-authored by Prof. Carmelo Marabello, Dean of Venice International University and professor of Film and Media Studies at Università Iuav di Venezia has been listed by the New York Times as one of the Best Movies of 2026.
In September 2025, the work received the Special Jury Prize at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.
The documentary is an eloquent homage to the city of Naples, and is the third documentary about everyday life in Italy from the director and co-author Gianfranco Rosi.
Every year, Venice International University welcomes a diverse range of international conferences, summer schools, advanced training programmes, and research workshops that transform the island of San Servolo into a unique hub of academic exchange. Organized by universities, research centres, scientific associations, and international networks, many involving institutions from the VIU consortium, these initiatives bring together scholars, researchers, professionals, and students from around the world to explore pressing questions across disciplines.
This summer, the campus of Venice International University on San Servolo Island is once again hosting a vibrant community of students, researchers, and faculty from around the world. Through an exceptionally rich portfolio of academic initiatives, VIU is offering opportunities for learning, research collaboration, and international exchange that span disciplines, academic levels, and global challenges.
The DISCO Knowledge Hub is an open-source digital platform designed to serve as a collaborative online space for stakeholders in the field of urban logistics and sustainable mobility. It offers a range of resources, tools, and opportunities for knowledge sharing, capacity building, innovation, and collaboration within this domain.
The DISCO Knowledge Hub aims to be the go-to place for stakeholders, to empower them with the tools, information, and connections needed to drive positive change and innovation in urban logistics and mobility.
The vision is to build a dynamic and comprehensive online collaboration platform that serves as a central focal point for urban logistics and sustainable mobility stakeholders.
The Transport Research Arena (TRA) is Europe’s largest and most prestigious conference on transport research and innovation, organized every two years by the European Commission and leading professional partners.
TRA brings together researchers, industry experts, policymakers, and civil society representatives to explore new solutions for the future of sustainable and smart mobility. It is where ideas meet action and where Europe’s transport community comes together to shape tomorrow’s systems and technologies.
The Italo–Latin American Hub is launched in Venice through a new collaboration between the International Italo-Latin American Organization (IILA) and Venice International University (VIU).
On Thursday, May 7 at 9:30 a.m., Venice International University will host a high-level institutional session marking the launch of a strategic alliance between Italy-Latin-America Instute (IILA) and VIU. At its core is a shared vision: to recognize and enhance the contribution of contemporary Latin American creativity not only in the field of the arts, but as an active part of global knowledge production.
The meeting on May 7, scheduled to take place on the island of San Servolo, will bring together institutional representatives, curators, artists, and cultural operators from Italy and Latin America, with the aim of strengthening Italy’s role as a platform for dialogue and international projection for the cultures of Latin America, and of building a stable space for cooperation between the arts, research, and education.
Monday, May 18, 2026
4.30 pm, VIU Café – Venice International University, San Servolo Island
Sara De Vido, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia (Chair)
Luiza Bialasiewicz, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Gretchen Walters, Université de Lausanne
Randall Lesaffer, KU Leuven
On the occasion of the 2026 Venice Biennale, Ulysses’ Gates inaugurates the artistic project Climate-tides at the Restaurant “In Paradiso” in Venice
Friday, May 8, 10:30 a.m.
The project, stemming from an idea by Umberto Vattani and created by Filippo Gregoretti, Hiroaki Kitano and Vittorio Loreto, transforms data from the lagoon, the tides and the MOSE system into an immersive listening experience dedicated to the relationship between Venice and water.
The Hidden Venice app was co-developed by Fabrizio Nevola of the University of Exeter, who is teaching at VIU in Spring 2026, to bring historical research to the broader public through immersive media.
The three trails - set in 1572, 1639 and 1730 - combine storytelling, with fictional historical characters describing the places and people they encounter along the way - and short articles that introduce historical background and context for each site, along with suggestions for further reading.
It is not too late to sign up for an Intensive Graduate Activity at VIU this summer!
We have rolling admissions for the last places in several of our Summer Schools, and calls for applications are still open for some of our Graduate Seminars and PhD Academy.
The Intensive Graduate Activities encourage participants to experiment with interdisciplinary approaches, tackling complex and transversal topics that cannot be resolved from a single disciplinary perspective.
By bringing together doctoral students and young researchers from across the world, the programs foster vibrant collaboration and the exchange of ideas, while encouraging young scholars to engage with scientific challenges in creative and innovative ways. Equally important, they serve to build and strengthen scholarly networks within the consortium, creating lasting partnerships in areas of shared interest.
In this way, the Intensive Graduate Activities equip emerging researchers not only with skills for successful careers in academia and beyond, but also with the intellectual agility and collaborative mindset required to contribute meaningfully to global academic and societal debates.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
4.30 pm, Room 1G
Venice International University, San Servolo Island
Giovanni Pellegrini, Film Director
Starting on April 3, 2026, occasional visitors and day-trippers to the city of Venice will have to pay an "Access Fee" to the Municipality of Venice on selected dates.
Students and professors of VIU activities are exempt from the payment.
11.30 am - 5.30 pm
February 19, 2026
Venice International University, San Servolo Island
