The United Nations University's new research and training institute in Bologna has been officially announced at the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka thanks to an agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, during the week dedicated to the Emilia-Romagna Region.
    During the event, a debate also focused on the implications of artificial intelligence on human development and the future of society.
    "Bologna hosts the world's oldest university, and this is obviously very important for us from a historic standpoint", stated Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of the United Nations University, stressing that the objective is to "promote an inclusive artificial intelligence".
    And in order for AI to be inclusive, "access to computer facilities is very, very important", added Marwala.
    He recalled that "Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna region have invested a lot" on supercomputers for artificial intelligence and "it is very important for us to be there in order to be able to promote an inclusive artificial intelligence, which deals with relevant problems that don't necessarily make sense from a commercial standpoint", and can help "tackle issues connected to climate change", for instance.
    "The Emilia-Romagna region has been cooperating for years with the United Nations University which has its headquarters here in Tokyo and will soon open an institute in Bologna, its 14th, focusing on artificial intelligence", said Emilia-Romagna Governor Michele de Pascale.
    The upcoming opening, noted de Pascale, was no coincidence because "Bologna hosts one of the most important supercalculus centres at an international level, surely the most important for artificial intelligence in the European Union".
    This has "strategic implications for manufacturing, to fight climate change, for energy transition, mitigation, adaptation, as well as for public health and many other elements set to radically change our lives", noted the Governor.
    Emilia-Romagna, concluded de Pascale, "has a first-rate university network" and the "United Nations University is competing to become an international hub for the challenges we are currently experiencing".

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