In recent years, the definition of Third Mission has fostered a reflection on the strategic role that the academic system assumes within society and the reference territorial context.
The term Third Mission – in fact – refers to the set of activities of scientific, technological, and cultural transfer and productive transformation of knowledge, through direct interaction processes of the University with civil society and the entrepreneurial fabric, with the aim of promoting economic and social growth of the territory, so that knowledge becomes instrumental for obtaining benefits of a social, cultural, and economic nature.
Third Mission, as defined by ANVUR, is effectively one of the institutional missions of universities, alongside the traditional ones of Teaching and Research. It is recognized as such by D.L. 19/2012, which confines the principles of the “Self-Assessment, Periodic Evaluation and Accreditation” system (AVA), and by the subsequent D.M. 47/2013, which identifies its indicators and parameters of periodic evaluation along with those of teaching and research.
Therefore, the LUM University with the Third Mission intends to enhance the products of teaching and research, promoting comparison, exchange, and mutual development between the University and stakeholders, in relation to the territory and social contexts of reference, to build a knowledge society and an economy of belonging.
The Euro-Mediterranean location of the University and its renewed willingness to dialogue in a privileged manner with the European Levant have consistently led to strengthening its identity and its roots with the actors of the southern and, in particular, Apulian territory.
Compared to the new European scenarios of territorial development focused on the knowledge economy and on the intelligent specialization of territories, the University positions itself as a privileged actor in the emerging development dynamics resulting from the collaborative design between Public Institutions, the business world, and labor, operators in specialized human capital training.
Hence the identification, by LUM University, of the strategic lines to be adopted with reference to the Third Mission, pursuing as the main objective that of promoting – through the economic valorization of knowledge, technology transfer and knowledge, sustainable innovation, the development of entrepreneurship and business innovation, and the creation of territorial Innovation Ecosystems – the development of the community and the territory as a whole.