Justifiably famous as a center of culture, cuisine, fine art and history, Italy also remains a major global science and technology leader. The country’s researchers are particularly strong in the fields of automation and manufacturing, as well as in disciplines involving biomedicine and biotechnology, energy and new materials research, and information technology.
The commitment to innovation shows in how Italy is using JoVE video to promote its varied STEM efforts. JoVE initially entered the Italian market in 2011, responding to a need for high-quality science video content. Now JoVE has the privilege of serving 22 subscribers, universities and research centers among them.
During the past two years, more and more subscribers have been upgrading their licenses. Currently, two universities have JoVE Unlimited: the University of Naples Federico II and the University of Verona. This Unlimited agreement gives them access to all JoVE content as it becomes available, at no extra cost.
Attracting Great Italian STEM Institutions
We’re drawing subscribers of varying sizes and specialties — and some subscribers are among the top organizations of their sort in Italy. Recently, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), the nation’s preeminent biomedical institution, became a subscriber.
This organization is also the technical and scientific public body of the Italian National Health Service, under the Ministero della Salute (Ministry of Health). Our most recent Italian subscriber is the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart — along with its affiliate, the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital.
Boosting Italian STEM Classrooms
It’s no wonder JoVE has successfully attracted scientific communities in Italy: JoVE delivers real results in classrooms and laboratories. Because of their various features, JoVE’s Science Education videos in particular help students visually grasp STEM ideas that they wouldn’t otherwise easily master, explained Dr. Valentina Lodde, an associate professor at University of Milan’s RedBioLab.
Additionally, she said that JoVE saves teachers considerable time preparing lessons. The students can also watch the videos anytime, anywhere. “Once at home, students study much more willingly using videos instead of textbooks,” she said.
JoVE’s English audio comes along with closed captioning in Italian (and other languages). In this way, JoVE is directly introducing students to scientific English, which is “absolutely important for their future career,” she said.
Working Closely With Italy's High Schools
Currently, JoVE Science Education supports a gamut of Italian teaching institutions, including 60 high schools. As part of our College-Ready STEM Partnership program, we also launched a pilot project with three universities. This allows us to grant access to JoVE videos to designated high school partners (selected by these JoVE subscribers) at no extra charge.
JoVE is committed to the Italian market. As part of our overall educational outreach and support efforts for STEM recruitment, we partnered with the University of Milan’s CusMiBio. The result: JoVE participated in the city of Milan’s “STEMintheCity” event, which drew both high school- and university-level professors and students together for interaction.
Supporting Top Italian Research
But Italian researchers and teachers don’t just watch and learn from JoVE videos. JoVE also attracts top scientists to publish video protocol articles. As of June 2019, researchers from 167 Italian institutions have published 338 peer-reviewed articles, and those two statistics will steadily grow as innovators keep discovering.
These JoVE articles cover protocols in fields as diverse as chemistry, neuroscience, immunology and infection, bioengineering, and much more. Here are a few of the more popular JoVE articles from Italy’s regional innovators:
- Chemistry: “From Molecules to Materials: Engineering New Ionic Liquid Crystals Through Halogen Bonding,” lab of Pierangelo Metrangolo, Politecnico di Milano
- Biology: “Analysis of Oxidative Stress in Zebrafish Embryos,” lab of Massimo M. Santoro, University of Torino
- Medicine: “Tissue Characterization after a New Disaggregation Method for Skin Micro-Grafts Generation,” lab of Michele Riccio, A.O.U Ospedali Riuniti Ancona
JoVE: In Company of Top STEM Players
JoVE subscribers include many of the best STEM research and teaching organizations worldwide. There are some 6 million scientists and students who are annual JoVE users, and about 1,000 academic institutions are subscribers. These organizations — of all different sizes and types — access the same high-quality scientific video content.
JoVE is proud to help drive innovation in Italy and in colleges and corporations — anywhere researchers and teachers want to improve how science is done. Read about what JoVE does in China, and Germany.