Bari, October 2025 – Following the success of its first stop in Milan, FAIR’s journey into artificial intelligence continued in Southern Italy with the second stage of “The FAIR Ecosystem: AI between Research and Industry”, held on October 20, 2025 at the University of Bari Aldo Moro.
An event dedicated to fostering dialogue between research and industry, showcasing how AI can become a driver of sustainable, widespread, and human-centered innovation across Southern regions.
Research and industry together for ethical and impactful AI
The day opened with remarks from Rector Roberto Bellotti (University of Bari Aldo Moro), Prof. Donato Malerba (University of Bari Aldo Moro, Spoke 6 Coordinator), Giuseppe De Pietro (President of the FAIR Foundation), Marta Rapallini (Program Manager, FAIR Foundation), and Fabrizio Cobis (Ministry of University and Research).
In their speeches, the speakers highlighted the importance of collaboration between universities, research centers, and companies in building an AI ecosystem that is trustworthy, inclusive, and impact-driven, capable of generating value for both society and the productive system.
Marta Rapallini shared key figures illustrating the growth of the FAIR Foundation, established with PNRR funding: 136 entities involved across 16 Italian regions, 416 researchers recruited (89% under 40), 25 founding partners, and an expanding network of universities, research centers, and companies. A virtuous model that demonstrates how collaboration between public and private research is already delivering tangible results nationwide.
The six FAIR Cascade Calls projects showcase AI in action
The core of the day focused on the presentation of six projects funded through FAIR Cascade Calls, jointly developed by universities and companies from central and southern Italy.
Introduced and discussed by their protagonists, the projects demonstrated concrete applications of artificial intelligence across fields ranging from healthcare and inclusion to logistics and industrial virtual reality.
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Spoke 1 – Towards human-centered AI: focus on explainable RAG and mechanisms for hallucination detection
Salvatore Rinzivillo (CNR) and Fabio Severino (Geckosoft) -
Spoke 3 – Optover-AI – Resilient System for Ocular Anomaly Detection
Daniel Riccio (University of Naples “Federico II”) and Giovanni Mancini (Sobereye Italia) -
Spoke 5 – LLMs for solving optimization problems: the logistics use case
Antonella Poggi (Sapienza University of Rome) and Francesco Romito (Spindox) -
Spoke 6 – Vasari – Virtual Reality and Symbiotic Artificial Intelligence in Industrial Operation Simulation
Michelangelo Ceci (University of Bari Aldo Moro) and Giuseppe Modugno (MTM Project) -
Spoke 9 – Artificial intelligence and inclusion: the Visual Impaired Hat project
Francesco Scarcello (University of Calabria) with Vito Santarcangelo and Davide Scintu (iinformatica) -
Spoke 10 – HOIE
Emanuele Ragusa and Marco Moltisanti (Xenia Progetti S.R.L.)
The ANSA talk show: “AI between Research and Industry – PNRR and beyond”
In the afternoon, the event continued with a live talk show streamed on ANSA.it, hosted by Alessio Jacona (ANSA AI Observatory), titled “AI between Research and Industry – PNRR and beyond”. The session brought together representatives from FAIR, industry, and academia to reflect on how to continue the growth and collaboration initiated through the PNRR.
In his opening remarks, FAIR Foundation President Giuseppe De Pietro emphasized the tangible impact of research–industry synergies generated by the project, highlighting FAIR’s ambition to go beyond the PNRR and strengthen its role as a national hub for AI innovation. Subsequent sessions explored concrete examples of collaboration through three thematic areas:
- AI for healthcare, with Donato Malerba (University of Bari Aldo Moro) and Franco Prampolini (Lutech SpA), showcasing collaboration between the university’s symbiotic AI research group and a leading Italian and global player in digital transformation.
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AI for finance, with Antonella Poggi (Sapienza University of Rome) and Francesco Bonazzi (Intesa Sanpaolo), presenting the application of LLMs to financial document analysis;
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Green-aware AI, with Francesco Scarcello (University of Calabria) and Elmiro Tavolaro (VT Solutions), focusing on social inclusion and AI applied to human resources to enhance collaboration processes, continuous employee training, and workplace inclusion.
The market perspective
The day concluded with a panel focused on how AI solutions are adopted by the market and the Italian SME ecosystem. Marta Rapallini (Program Manager, FAIR Foundation) shared insights into the expansion of the research and industry ecosystem fostered by the project, underlining the importance of sustaining this momentum beyond the PNRR through new investments and initiatives. Vincenzo Fiore (Confindustria) and Nicola Plantamura (Confapi) highlighted the role of industry associations as key platforms for training, listening, and gathering the needs of SMEs. The panel also provided an opportunity to discuss the economic and employment opportunities linked to AI and the development potential of Southern Italy as a strategic innovation hub.
Relive the event
All key moments of the day—from institutional speeches to project presentations and the ANSA talk show—will soon be available online on the FAIR Foundation digital channels.
An opportunity to explore how collaboration between research and industry is shaping a path toward artificial intelligence that is more sustainable, transparent, and human-centered.
Watch again the ANSA talk show “AI between research and industry”.
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