Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
UCSC | Italy
Institution Bio
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC) is a multidisciplinary comprehensive university in Italy, established in Milan with a nationwide network of campuses across five cities (Milan, Brescia, Piacenza-Cremona, Rome, and Campobasso). As one of the largest non-state higher education institutions in Europe, UCSC integrates scientific research, academic education, and professional development across diverse domains, including economic anthropology, agricultural and food sciences, economics, education, and health. The university maintains an extensive academic and scientific infrastructure dedicated to multidisciplinary teaching, continuous training, and public engagement.
Through its dedicated research departments and international cooperation offices, UCSC actively designs, manages, and implements European and international initiatives across programmes such as Erasmus+ and Horizon, fostering systemic innovation, capacity building, and institutional cooperation with educational networks and public bodies. In the vocational and lifelong learning arena, UCSC bridges academic research with applied vocational pathways, focusing on food system sustainability, the cultural and educational dimensions of collective catering, public health nutrition, and the green transition of institutional canteens.
Within the agro-food and catering sectors, UCSC connects higher education and advanced research with regional labor markets, vocational schools, and institutional food service operators. It promotes applied research on food choices, sustainable food procurement, food traceability, and consumer behavior, actively contributing to knowledge valorisation between academia, vocational training centers, and enterprises.
Within RestaCOVE, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore serves as the Project Coordinator and Lead Beneficiary of Work Package 1 (Project Management). UCSC operates as the Central Coordination Unit (CCU), guaranteeing overall legal, administrative, and financial management before the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). In addition to its governance and quality-control leadership, UCSC drives key technical contributions, co-leading research within the Applied Research Hubs on the educational and behavioral role of canteens, developing specialized learning modules for sustainable collective catering, hosting the final international conference in Milan, and guiding consortium-wide alignment with European policy frameworks
Key Facts
Type: Higher Education Institution / University | Faculty: 12 | Learners: 42,000+ |