Cilento-Pollica Region | Paideia Campus

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Welcome

Pollica, a rural village of 2.268 inhabitants in the south of Italy, is the epicenter of Mediterranean lifestyle and the crossover point of history, culture and anthropology of this ancient heritage. We have decided to restart: To invest in our future: YOUNG PEOPLE, focusing on essential values, specifically the balance between MAN-NATURE, from the cradle of our culture: THE MEDITERRANEAN.

In Pollica (SA), capital of the Mediterranean Diet, Future Food Institute has inaugurated the Paideia Campus, a 12-year impactful project, where one can learn a new type of sociality and live the concept of integral ecology, a fundamental approach to face the transition necessary to achieve the Goals of the 2030 Agenda, in lifestyle and development models of which the Mediterranean Diet is the most concrete example.
The mission and thus the activity of the Future Food Institute concentrates on three dimensions: We begin with KNOWLEDGE, organizing not only international research projects but also training programs that welcome people from all walks of life from students to teachers and from start-uppers to industry leaders from all over the world. Then the theme of INNOVATION: today you can no longer think of innovation without thinking of sustainability and this is a perfect place to test and prototype innovative solutions for sustainability, sustainable fishing and agriculture, slow tourism, repopulating the villages and making liveable the inland areas of Italy that today must be enhanced and protected. Finally, the involvement of the COMMUNITY, without which these places do not live. The community is a heritage that must be involved, preserved, and regenerated so that it can hand down these millenary traditions over the centuries. And this community is magical, it welcomes you by showing you that the land must be cared for, it teaches you to appreciate the slow pace, the care of the soil and of the territory.

In Pollica, Future Food Institute is fostering a prototyping, in collaboration with local institutions and - more importantly - through a process of co-design with the local community, an historic change of perspective, from linear to circular systems, from reductionist to complex and holistic paradigms, from an ego-centric vision to an eco-centric vision of the role of man in the complex system that links environment, society and economy.

Eleven years after the appointment of the Mediterranean Diet as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the awareness of how it is much more than a simple food model, but a wealth of science, traditional knowledge, skills, and identity values generated by a territory,
continues to grow. Cilento, which can be considered as a real laboratory of land and marine biodiversity, is capable of releasing unique natural wealth in the world. As a part of the Cities2030 project, Future Food Institute is working towards developing a MEDITERRANEAN LABORATORY - a Living Lab where we are prototyping models and personal services aimed at combating the depopulation of villages and inland areas, enhancing the Italian cultural, historical, artistic and environmental heritage by following the integral ecology approach,
and creating new businesses.

The Campus will host hackathons and acceleration calls co-organised with the numerous partners of the Future Food Institute. A Living Lab will also host innovation programmes to give life to business projects in the following areas:

Dissemination of the Mediterranean diet
Sustainable agriculture, fishing and zootechnics
Blue economy
Circular economy
Climate-smart living
Hospitality and sustainable tourism
Enhancement of the territory’s cultural and environmental heritage

Everything is connected (environmental protection and human health, territorial regeneration and citizens' wellbeing, social justice and climate change). The Paideia Campus Pollica project was created to teach people how to see these connections and thus design a better future for the local community, for Italy, for the Mediterranean and for the whole world.

Pollica focus areas