About the School
The 1st International School on Landscape, Heritage and Sustainable Development (Cilento 2026) is conceived as an intensive, interdisciplinary training and co-design programme addressing key challenges of territorial development through an integrated perspective on landscape, cultural heritage, local governance and climate transition.
The School combines high-level scientific lectures, applied fieldwork and a continuous Policy Lab, enabling participants to translate knowledge into operational policy recommendations and place-based development strategies. Each session combines conceptual inputs with methods, tools and case-based applications, so participants can directly apply the knowledge acquired.
Participants are invited to present project ideas and draft papers selected for discussion with experts during daily sessions on landscape and community-related initiatives, cultural heritage and landscape as drivers of local development, landscape governance in fragile contexts, and natural landscapes in the context of global change.
Policy Lab and skills
Across the programme, participants build a shared analytical and strategic framework, culminating in policy briefs and pilot project proposals co-developed with experts and local stakeholders.
The School is designed as a bridge between academic knowledge and professional application, supporting transferable skills in impact evaluation and policy analysis, territorial diagnostics, spatial interpretation, project design, public-private partnership development, stakeholder engagement and co-design processes.
Programme structure
Day 1 - Landscape, Policy, and Socio-Ecological Systems
European landscape frameworks, territorial diagnostics, cultural routes, fieldwork and the launch of the Policy Lab.
Day 2 - Cultural Heritage, Economy, and Innovation
Heritage economics, innovation ecosystems, finance for cultural heritage and applied field visits to Paestum and Velia.
Day 3 - Cohesion Policy, Governance of Peripheral Areas, and Local Development
Inner areas, territorial cohesion, rural development, Mediterranean Diet, bio-districts, PPP models and local co-design.
Day 4 - Ecology, Natural Capital, and Climate Transition
Landscape ecology, climate resilience, natural capital, policy action and final multi-stakeholder validation of Policy Lab outputs.
Day 5 - Free Day for Excursion
Special extra proposals for participants, to be defined with local partner institutions.
