Glossary and Sources

GLOSSARY

ACADEMIC YEAR
Period of 12 months – stretching over two calendar years – during which teaching takes place, i.e. lessons, exercises and laboratory activities.

AREAS OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY COUNCIL (CUN)
The National University Council represents an advisory and proposing body of the Ministry of Education, University and Research. In performing its duties as the elective body representing the university system, it expresses opinions, formulates proposals, adopts motions, makes recommendations, studies and analyses any subject of interest to the university system. The CUN has set up 14 different areas:

• Area 01 Mathematics and informatics
• Area 02 Physics
• Area 03 Chemistry
• Area 04 Earth Science
• Area 05 Biology
• Area 06 Medicine
• Area 07 Agricultural and veterinary science
• Area 08 Civil engineering and architecture
• Area 09 Industrial and information engineering
• Area 10 Antiquities, philology, literary studies, art history
• Area 11 History, philosophy, pedagogy and psychology
• Area 12 Law
• Area 13 Economics and statistics
• Area 14 Political and social science

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
A postdoctoral researcher is someone who has received a grant (or funding) to carry out research activities. Grants are awarded by public selection procedure based on a specific call, and candidates must have a suitable scientific-professional curriculum for carrying out this activity.

DEGREE CLASS
A way to group together the different courses included in a single cycle. Degree classes have a name (title) and a class expressed as a number. The features of each class are defined at a national level, with specific ministerial decrees, and are therefore shared by all universities.

BACHELOR’S DEGREE COURSE
A three-year training course during which, to graduate, students must earn 180 credits, i.e. 60 credits per year.

DEGREE COURSE
Each degree course, whether Bachelor’s or Master’s degree or single-cycle Master’s degree, has a denomination (title) and a class of membership expressed by a number (e.g. Degree Course in Economics, Institutions and Finance – class 28, which is the class that includes all types of degrees in economics).

MASTER’S DEGREE COURSE
A two-year training course following a three-year degree; to graduate, students must earn 120 credits.

SINGLE-CYCLE MASTER’S DEGREE COURSE
A five- or six-year training course; to graduate, students must earn 300 (for a five-year course) or 360 (for a six-year course) credits.

INFORMATION DASHBOARD
A display system that shows information in an easy and immediate way. The current system is characterised both by its informative (that is, it returns one or more types of information), and by its interactive character, allowing information to be navigated through real interaction with data and visualizations.

DATASET
A collection of data, generally about the same organization, that is jointly distributed and managed.

OPEN DATA
Data that can be freely used, redistributed by anyone (with a few limitations: such as the requirement to cite the source, or using copyleft licenses).

TEACHING AND RESEARCH STAFF
Lecturers: the term lecturers refers to all tenured lecturers and temporary researchers. Lecturers teach a subject at the university. Their role also includes scientific research functions and some administrative activities. Their duties are teaching (preparation and performance of lectures, reception of students, seminars, exams, thesis) and all activities related to research (scientific publications), management of competitions and the necessary bureaucratic and administrative formalities. In the Italian university system, there are the following academic roles:

• Full professor (or first-tier professor) who is admitted after a competition;
• Associate professor (or second level professor) to whom access is granted following a competition;
• Adjunct professor;
• Temporary lecturer;
• Assistant Professor;
• Research fellow;
• Assistant Professor (tenure track);
• Postdoctoral Researcher.

The title of professor emeritus is a career recognition, following academic roles.

Each lecturer and researcher belongs to a Disciplinary Scientific Sector (SSD); these sectors are grouped in several “competition” areas (currently fourteen). Law 240/2010 (Gelmini Law) requires all first and second level professors to have a national scientific qualification.

• Assistant professors (fixed-term) carry out research and supplementary teaching activities. The contracts have a maximum duration of three years and can be renewed for a total duration of six years.
• Research fellows and Assistant Professors (tenure track) : Article 24 of Law 240 dated 30 December 2010 sets out the criteria for “research fellow”, a three-year contract renewable for a maximum of two years; “assistant professor (tenure track)” is a non-renewable three-year contract, at the end of which a judgement is expressed on the work of the researcher: if the outcome is positive and the researcher has obtained national scientific qualification, they will pass to the role of associate professor.
• A postdoctoral Researcher is someone who has received a grant (or funding) to carry out research activities. Grants are awarded by public selection procedure based on a specific call, and candidates must have a suitable scientific-professional curriculum for carrying out this activity.

PUBLIC RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
The research institutions listed in Legislative Decree 218/2016.

TUSCAN PUBLIC RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
Public research institutions based or operating in Tuscany.

ERASMUS+:
A European Union programme that, from 2014 to 2020, supports education, training, youth and sport within Europe. With a budget of €14.7 billion, it offers study and training opportunities abroad to over four million young people.

FP7
More commonly called the “Seventh Framework Program”, it is a program for research and technological development directly managed by the European Commission, in force from 2007 to 2013. FP7 was designed for both the public and private sectors and a total of €53.2 billion was made available.

HORIZON-2020
Horizon-2020 was set up as a “program […] of the European Union (EU) for research and innovation”, in force from 2014-2020. The EU has allocated a substantial amount of funding for research projects with a high scientific and innovative content, with the aim of making Europe the world leader in science, combining and stimulating international, interdisciplinary and investment collaboration from private individuals in research.

PERCENTAGE FUNDING
The percentage impact of the funding is the ratio between total funding obtained from the region or institute selected in a given thematic area and the total allocated by the European Union in reference to the chosen area, expressed as a fraction of 100.

INTEGRATION
All processes carried out on data from different sources in order to provide the user with a unified view of that data. Integration allows different databases to be “virtually” synchronised, without needing to extract data from the source.

ENROLMENT AND NEWLY ENROLMENT
A student is “enrolled” if he is registered to any year or any type of degree course.
A student is “newly enrolled” if he signs up to a university course for the first time. Therefore, “newly enrolled” students are first year undergraduates in the first year of the three-year degree (more commonly called “degree”) or the single-cycle master’s degree course.

LINKED OPEN DATA
This term, coined in 2006 by the Web inventor Tim Berners Lee (Berners Lee, 2006), refers to a series of best practices to structure, connect and publish datasets (a set of data) according to the languages ​​and methods of the semantic web. The publication of Linked Open Data allows developers to more easily establish links between information from different sources, making it possible to create new and innovative applications.

ONTOLOGY
In computer science, a formal and shared representation of the concepts and mutual relationships that characterize a certain domain of knowledge.

ORDINARY PROFESSOR
An ordinary professor (also called first level professor) has been assigned a professorship; this position represents the highest academic qualification available.

PROFESSOR PRO TEMPORE
A professor pro tempore is in the three years preceding an appointment as ordinary professor. In the previous university reform, before finally taking up the role of first level professor, there was a three-year period followed by a scientific and didactic evaluation. This no longer applies under current legislation.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
An associate professor (also known as second level professor) has been assigned a teaching position. Their academic position is lower than that of a first level professor.

UNCONFIRMED ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
An unconfirmed associate professor is in the three years preceding an appointment as associate professor. In the previous university reform, before finally taking up the role of second level professor, there was a three-year period followed by a scientific and didactic evaluation. This no longer applies under current legislation.

ORIGIN OF MAIN PARTNERS
The main partners, whether public or private, are divided according to their origin. According to how the source data is structured, partners are registered in the place where they have their main office. This means that if a given partner has its head office in Rome and a branch in Tuscany, and the latter collaborates with a Tuscan university, the partner will be recorded under “Rest of Italy” and not “Tuscany”. This distortion, which is particularly common for the so-called National Research Organizations (e.g. CNR, CNRS, CSIC, etc.), is known as the “headquarters effect”.

ORIGIN OF ENROLMENTS
The origin of newly enrolled students has been calculated according to their residence, as registered by the university during enrolment.

RDF (Resource Description Framework)
RDF is a series of specifications developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to provide a metadata modelling tool in a variety of formats.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Assistant professors contribute to the development of university scientific research and perform integrative teaching tasks. There is a fixed number of assistant professors.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (not confirmed)
An assistant professor (not confirmed) is in the three years preceding an appointment as an assistant professor. In the previous university reform, before finally taking up the role of assistant professor, there was a three-year period followed by a scientific and didactic evaluation. This no longer applies under current legislation.

RESEARCH FELLOW OR ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (tenure track)
The roles of research fellow and assistant professor (tenure track) were introduced by “Law 240 of 30 December 2010”, in particular article 24, which sets out the selection and career criteria. The position of “research fellow” is a three-year contract renewable for a maximum of two years; “assistant professor (tenure track)” is a non-renewable three-year contract, at the end of which a judgment is expressed on the work of the researcher: if the outcome is positive and the researcher has obtained national scientific qualification, they will pass to the role of associate professor.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (fixed-term)
Fixed-term assistant professors carry out research and supplementary teaching activities. The contracts have a maximum duration of three years and can be renewed for a total duration of six years. There is a fixed number of assistant professors.

SPARQL EndpointSCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINARY SECTOR
A disciplinary distinction used in Italy to organize higher education. The current sectors are established by Ministerial Decree 855 of 30 October 2015 and are effective from 20 November 2015, date of publication in the Official Gazette. There are 367 scientific-disciplinary sectors, corresponding to 188 sectors of public tenders (SC), 88 macro-sectors and 14 areas. Each professor in an Italian university belongs to a single sector.

An acronym for “SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language” – a formal language for querying the data represented in the RDF format (acronym for “Resource Description Framework“). It is one of the standard languages, recommended by the W3C, which characterizes the so-called Semantic Web.

SPIN-OFF:
This term refers to an enterprise created from a pre-existing entity or unit, which generates a new source of activity, with the optional presence of active support measures from the home organisation. In particular, university or academic spin-offs are companies that originate from universities and/or research centres and are characterized by their ability to transfer the innovations generated by academic research into the productive fabric.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
National students are those who hold Italian citizenship; international students are therefore all those who do not possess Italian citizenship, although residing in Italy. This number does not include international transfer students, such as those enrolled in the Erasmus+ program, Erasmus Mundus, etc.

TYPE OF DIPLOMA
The reorganization of the second cycle of the national education system has created three different education paths:

• “Lyceum” high schools, divided into six different types: classical, linguistic, scientific (with the novelty option of an “applied sciences” course), human sciences (with the economic-social option), music and dance, and artistic.
• Technical schools, divided into two sectors: economic and technological, within which there are 11 study paths.
• Vocational schools, divided into two sectors: services and industry, within which there are 6 study paths.

SOURCES

National Register of Students – Anagrafe Nazionale Studenti (ANS)
As shown on the http://anagrafe.miur.it/index.php website, ANS “is an administrative repository in which the members of the Italian university system are registered. Through this portal, the MIUR allows for the archive to be consulted in real time, with information on enrolments, registrations and degrees of all universities authorized to issue a university degree (both state and non-state). Student data are submitted by universities monthly, and updated by TuscanyOpenResearch, and may therefore vary from month to month.
To consult the official data extracted by ANS on 31 July each year – the date conventionally taken as the end of the academic year – and statistically validated, refer to the website of the Statistical Office and Studies of the MIUR http://ustat.miur.it.
The data is available starting from 2003.
Last update of the data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: November 2020.

Cerca Università
As reported on the CercaUniversità website, it represents: “a service that aggregates all possible searches regarding university, from graduate courses to funding, from teachers to students, from tenders to statistics”. The site is managed by the Ministry of Education, University and Research in collaboration with Cineca.
In particular, some related data sets are provided through TuscanyOpenResearch:

• Docenti (Academic staff) – The data is available starting from 2003. Last update of the data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: November 2020.
• Assegnisti di ricerca (Postdoctoral researchers)– The data is available starting from 2018. Last update of the data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: October 2020
• Dottorati di ricerca (PhD students) – The data is available starting from 2000. Last update of the data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: November 2020.

MIUR statistics
The “statistiche.miur” source of the Ministry of Education, University and Research, has now been abandoned and replaced with USTAT (some USTAT-MIUR datasets are currently being integrated). The data is available starting from 2004 up until 2014.

CORDIS
The main public archive and portal of the European Commission to disseminate public information on all EU-funded research projects. The copyright of the Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) dataset belongs to the EU – © European Union, 1994-2020.
Source: CORDIS, cordis.europa.eu The data are managed by the EU Publications Office: https://op.europa.eu/en/home.
More information on data licensing can be found at this link: https://cordis.europa.eu/about/legal/en
For some institutions/figures included in the CORDIS dataset, ToscanaOpenResearch has carried out a manual revision and a modification of the type of activity associated with the figure, to ensure the characteristics are consistent throughout.
The data is available starting from 2007.
Last update of the data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: October 2020.

Spin-off Italia
This database provides updated information on public research spin-offs in Italy, in order to “highlight the entrepreneurship that comes from the exploitation of research results”. The data are available, under an Italian Open Data License (IODL), at: https://www.spinoffitalia.it/?q=download.
The Spin-off Italia database is the result of the collaboration between the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Polytechnic University of Marche, NetVal and the Management Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.
The data is available starting from 1981.
Last update of the data in the TuscanyOpenResearch portal: December 2020

Erasmus+
Erasmus+ is the European Union’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. Planned up until 2020, Erasmus+ has more than just opportunities for students. By combining seven previous programmes, it offers opportunities for a wide range of individuals and organisations.
Data on Erasmus+ projects are provided by the European Union under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence; © European Union, 1995-2020.
The data is available starting from 2014. Last update of the data in the TuscanyOpenResearch portal: December 2020

Open Data USTAT by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research – MIUR

The open data on tertiary education, provided by MIUR and managed by the MIUR Statistical Office (USTAT) – Gestione Patrimonio Informativo e Statistica – Formazione Terziaria, provides information about Universities (students, staff, contributions and interventions); High Artistic, Musical and Coreutic Education (AFAM) (Students, staff and contributions and interventions) and Right to Study (Institutions, Colleges).
The data are provided under an Italian Open Data License v2.0 at this link: http://ustat.miur.it/opendata/.
In particular, some related data sets are provided through ToscanaOpenResearch:

• Postgraduate training – The data is available starting from 1998.
  Latest data update on the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: September 2019
• The Regional Right to University Study – The data is available starting from 2013. Latest data update on the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: November 2020
• University Contributions and Interventions – The data is available starting from 2014. Last update of data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: November 2020
• Gender Balance – The data is available starting from 2012. Last update of data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: September 2019

Patiris
It is an observatory on the patents of Universities and Public Research Institutes in Italy, which was created by researchers from the University of Bologna and University College London in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development. The data is provided with the license: Data Copyright © Questel 2012, all rights reserved, IPC Copyright © WIPO 2012, all rights reserved.
Last update of data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: 2013

Aggregate Analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov (AACT)
It is a repository of clinical trials conducted around the world. AACT is a publicly available relational database that contains all information (protocol and result data elements) about every study registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. Content is downloaded from ClinicalTrials.gov daily and loaded into AACT.
The data is provided with the license: Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative: https://www.ctti-clinicaltrials.org/ , Copyright © CTTI.
Data source: https://aact.ctti-clinicaltrials.org/
Last update of data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal:  May 2019

Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN 2012)
This is data on national funding for Research and Innovation, in the context of the Programme of Projects of National Significant Interest – PRIN of 2012, related to projects in which Tuscan actors collaborate. The data was obtained thanks to a memorandum of understanding between the Region of Tuscany and the Ministry of Education, University and Research – MIUR.
Last update of data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: 2012

Cluster Tecnologici Nazionali (CTN)
This is data on national funding for Research and Innovation, in the context of the National Technological Clusters programme (2012 and 2016 initiatives), related to projects in which Tuscan actors collaborate. The data was obtained thanks to a memorandum of understanding between the Region of Tuscany and the Ministry of Education, University and Research – MIUR.
Last update of data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: 2018

EU Health Programme
This is data on national funding for Research and Innovation, in the context of the EU Health programme^[1]. The data is obtained through the database Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA^[2]). The data is provided with this license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0);  © European Union, 1995-2020, at this link: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/chafea_pdb/health/projects
Last update of data in the ToscanaOpenResearch portal: February 2019

^[1]  https://ec.europa.eu/health/funding/programme_en

^[2] https://ec.europa.eu/chafea/index_en.htm

The following table provides detailed information for each of the datasets within ToscanaOpenResearch.