The Center for Advanced Studies for Defense is reconfigured, on an experimental basis for a three-year period, as a Higher Education Specialized Defense School for high qualification and research in the field of defense and security sciences.
The provision approved by the Budget Commission of the Chamber of Deputies as an amendment to the relaunch decree is aimed at developing training courses that favor the interdisciplinary integration between the national academic world and research in the defense sector as well as integrating the university, postgraduate and research to support the relaunch and more harmonious development of the productive and strategic sectors of the national industry.
Consequently, the CASD becomes a reference pole in a sector of strategic importance such as that of the training of the ruling class, not just military.
The activities necessary for the recognition initiated by the president of the Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa, aerial team general Fernando Giancotti as part of the Defense Training Enhancement Project (VALFORDIFE) have strengthened one of the cornerstones of the innovation and change processes of the entire training sector of Defense, giving the Center the necessary authority for a constructive confrontation with the academic, university and research world. In this context, the CASD joined, last March, the research quality assessment program conducted by the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research System (ANVUR).
The CASD will now be able to issue annual calls for PhD courses in Defense and Security sciences, activating a dedicated training offer based on a strategic plan prepared by an organizing committee, composed of two members designated by the Minister of Defense and three experts from high professionalism chosen by the Minister of University and Research.
At the end of the experimental period, following the evaluation of the ANVUR, the reconfiguration may take on a stable character through the recognition of the statutory and regulatory autonomy to be implemented by decree of the Minister of University and Research in consultation with the Defense Ministers and for the Public Administration.
The important milestone achieved thanks to the intense work of mutual confrontation and collaboration with the various institutions involved testifies to the spirit of the entire VALFORDIFE project, which aims to systemically develop a network of relationships capable of comparing, sharing and spreading the knowledge to face the challenging emergencies of our time.
In this regard, the CASD has recently launched a systematic debate on national interest and strategies for post-pandemic defense and security, with a focus on the pervasive need for innovation and digitalization, already defined previously and even more urgent today.
