Professor Riccardo Polosa, CoEHAR Founder, is among the first to launch the exchange and training activities between students and faculty members from numerous Italian universities and leading East Asian institutions, as part of the interdisciplinary LEGO project, funded by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU initiative under the PNRR framework.
In the coming weeks, several members of CoEHAR will travel to Indonesia to inaugurate a series of seminars, workshops, and Lectio Magistralis focused on the principles of smoking harm reduction and the treatment of smoking-related diseases. These events will take place at Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, one of Indonesia’s top public universities. Thanks to the LEGO project – Italy–East Asia cooperation: from global expertise to a global outlook – which involves 12 Italian universities and is coordinated by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Professor Polosa will officially launch the training and intercultural exchange activities with the Indonesian university.
The LEGO project aims to strengthen innovative teaching and ties with Asian partners, promote Italian education, and foster inclusion and access to mobility and opportunities for students and faculty from both continents, allowing them to broaden their knowledge and experience. Among LEGO’s partner institutions, the University of Catania made a significant contribution during the project’s development phase, and among its faculty members, Professor Riccardo Polosa, founder of CoEHAR, was the first to support cultural exchange activities with the Asian region. Since its foundation, CoEHAR has been an international hub focused on global outreach, networking, and scientific collaboration.
“It is an honor and a privilege to be among the first faculty members to participate in the LEGO project initiatives,” said Professor Polosa. “This is a great opportunity to engage with a dynamic and fast-growing academic environment that is producing highly competitive scientific output. Meeting with professors, researchers, and students from Universitas Padjadjaran in Indonesia, and exploring with them some of the themes we are deeply committed to, is a unique opportunity to observe and better understand young people’s perceptions of the impact of smoking on human health – particularly in a region where smoking prevalence is among the highest in the world.”
Professor Polosa will remain in Indonesia for two weeks, following a schedule filled with academic meetings, debates, and opportunities for discussion and in-depth exploration.
On June 14, Universitas Padjadjaran will also host the first conference dedicated to harm reduction in the Asia-Pacific region. Also attending: Professor Giovanni Li Volti, CoEHAR Director, and Professor Massimo Caruso, co-project leader of the Replica study.
