- General information
- PhD Board
- Training activities planned during the PhD course
- Services
- Quality management
- Student orientation
- Regulation of the PhD Programme
- University of Pisa PhD website
General Information on the PhD Programme
The PhD course represents a full-time commitment and essentially consists of conducting original research work, under the supervision of a professor, and writing a thesis on one of the following general topics:
- food science and technology;
- genomics, proteomics and metabolomics of species of agricultural interest;
- multifunctional agriculture;
- plant and animal production systems, even in urban environment;
- plant physiology, ecology and biochemistry;
- plant, animal and microbial biotechnologies;
- technologies for plant and soil protection and environmental bioremediation.
Currently, over 50 students are attending the doctorate or are waiting for the final exam; ten students come from foreign universities. Each PhD student is supported by two supervisors, at least one of whom belongs to DiSAAA-a. The official language of the PhD course is English.
PhD Board
The PhD Board includes 21 professors of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment and three scientists belonging to other scientific institutions, in Italy and abroad.
The PhD Board (academic year 2025-2028) will be coordinated by Prof. Daniele Antichi and includes:
The representative of the PhD students in the PhD Board for the two-year period 2023-2025 is Dr. Ugo Rogo (XXXVIII cycle, ugo.rogo@phd.unipi.it).
Training Activities Planned During the PhD Course (2024/2027, XL cycle)
PhD students participate in educational activities such as courses, seminars, summer schools and conferences organized by the University of Pisa or other institutions in Italy or abroad, with a tailor-made teaching plan which aims to enable the PhD student to achieve in-depth knowledge of specific scientific questions and an improvement of his general skills.
In particular, during the first year and the second year, PhD students attend courses and seminars organized partly by the University of Pisa for all its PhD students and partly by this PhD Programme, which offers specific courses for its students.
Pending the transition to a teaching activity organized in training credits, currently being studied by the Doctoral Quality Commission, the following courses are planned for the 2025/26 academic year (mandatory for first or second year doctoral students):
| Name | N. hrs | Year | Teacher | Final exam |
| English for research publication and presentation purposes | 32 | first | At the Centro Linguistico Interdipartimentale UNIPI | YES |
| Fundamentals of Statistics for Agricultural Research | 24 | first | Prof. Giuseppe Conte/Dr. Michele Moretti | YES |
| Publishing in International Scientific Journals | 8 | first | Prof. Giovanni Benelli | YES |
| *Advances in Agriculture: Experimental Design and Analysis of Results | 8 | first | Prof. Marco Landi | NO |
| *Advances in Agriculture: Ecological Principles of Agroforestry Systems | 8 | first | Dr. Alberto Mantino, Prof. Daniele Antichi | NO |
| *Advances in Agriculture: Precision Feeding and Digitalization | 8 | first | Prof. Marcello Mele, Dr. Alberto Mantino | NO |
| *Advances in Agriculture: Principles of Precision Fruit Growing | 8 | first | Prof. Giovanni Caruso | NO |
| *Advances in Agriculture: Optical Sensors for Phytopathological Diagnosis | 8 | first | Prof. Lorenzo Cotrozzi | NO |
| *Advances in Agriculture: Soilless Culture – Growing Techniques and Management | 8 | first | Prof. Luca Incrocci | NO |
| *Advances in Agriculture: Theory and Methods for Food System Research | 8 | first | Prof. Gianluca Brunori | NO |
| *Advances in Agriculture: Plant Cells for Sustainable Food Alternative | 8 | first | Prof. Laura Pistelli | NO |
| English for Research Purposes for the 2nd Year PhD candidates | 32 | second | External assignment | YES |
| Innovative methodologies in Agricultural Sciences | 8 | second | To be determined | YES |
* PhD students must choose 3 courses out of the 8 offered, for a total of 24 hours of lessons.
Moreover, the PhD students attend the so-called “transversal” teaching activity, organized by the University of Pisa for all its PhD students. The courses are being held approximately in the period January-June 2025. These teaching activities include seminars, laboratory and research activities, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary training. In this context, the courses recommended for PhD students in Agricultural, Food and Agro-environmental Sciences are:
| Training type | Denominazione | Anno | Modalità |
| “Transversal” Teaching Activity | Responsible Research and Innovation | First | 3 modules (8 + 8 + 4 hrs) |
| “Transversal” Teaching Activity | Career Labs for Doc | First | 4 laboratories (3 hrs each) |
| “Transversal” Teaching Activity | PhD+ | First | Lessons and seminars |
| “Transversal” Teaching Activity | Contamination Lab
|
First | Lessons and seminars |
| “Transversal” Teaching Activity | Seminars for the promotion of research products | First | Lessons and seminars |
| “Transversal” Teaching Activity | Valorization of research results and intellectual property | First | Lessons and seminars |
| “Transversal” Teaching Activity | Fundamental principles of ethics, gender equality and integrity | First | Lessons and seminars |
All PhD students are invited to spend at least six months at high-level research institutions abroad during the second and/or third year of the course. During the internship abroad, a 50% increase in the PhD scholarship is expected.
At the end of each year, each PhD student prepares a report on his research activities and holds a public seminar, in English, which must be evaluated and approved by the PhD Board.
To obtain the title, the candidate must have published at least one article in an indexed scientific journal. At the end of the course the thesis (in English) will be preliminarily evaluated by two external reviewers belonging to other Italian or foreign universities. From 2023 to 2025, DiSAAA-a PhD students have published over 300 research or review articles in scientific journals or conference proceedings. In total, these works have reported over 800 citations to date.
The title of Philosophiae Doctor is awarded after a public examination by a Commission of professors appointed by the PhD Board.
Services for the PhD Students
Operational and scientific structures:
| Laboratories | Agricultural-chemical analysis laboratory (plant tissues, irrigation water, soils; biochemistry laboratory); Molecular biology laboratory; Botany and applied botany laboratory; Plant physiology laboratory; Agricultural entomology laboratory; Genetics and genomics laboratory; Microbiology laboratory; Optical and electronic microscopy laboratory; Plant pathology laboratory; Food technology laboratory; Animal husbandry laboratory; Experimental stable; In vitro culture Laboratory; Mechanical outhouse. | |
| Bibliographic resources | 1,352,143 volumes are available to the students, included in the University’s online catalogue, and can be searched and queried by users at any time and from any location inside or outside the University; they cover all the thematic areas present in the educational offer; for Agricultural Sciences 51,579 volumes are available. The aforementioned books, located in 15 distributed libraries, is almost entirely accessible on open shelves and therefore directly consultable by users and available for loan. | |
| The available journals of specific disciplinary fields amounts to 30,992 titles, of which 1,513 current subscriptions, for a total of 510,229 years. All the journals in the national catalog of ACNP periodicals can be consulted/searched online at any time and from any location, both internal and external to UNIPI. The thematic coverage for the disciplinary areas offered by UNIPI for Agricultural Sciences is divided into 3,032 titles, of which 69 active, and 44,582 years. | ||
| E-resources | Databases (access to the contents of scientific journals and/or editorial series) | In addition to journals of specific disciplinary fields, access is available at campus level to numerous bibliographic and full text databases and to collections of ebooks. The online resources amount to over 50,000 titles, mainly collected in editorial packages, with specialized and multidisciplinary content. Specialist databases for Agricultural Sciences: Agra Europe, Agris, Agricola, CAB Abstracts, Informatore agrario, SciFinder, Sole 24ore, Veterinary Journal |
| Spaces and resources for PhD students and for computing | Free access to all spaces and resources structures including the Piagge Area Polo 5 of the Departmental IT System, which organises, manages and provides the IT and network services also for supporting the teaching and research activities of the departments of reference.
Spaces accessible to libraries for PhD students in the Agricultural Sciences area: 102 places. |
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| Multidisciplinary contracts with international scientific publishers | UNIPI stipulates many multidisciplinary contracts with international scientific publishers: Brill, De Gruyter, Cambridge University Press Journals; JSTOR; Nature; Oxford University Press Journals; Science; Science Direct; SpringerLink; Taylor & Francis Journals; Wiley Online Journals. Bibliographic databases; Web of Knowledge, Scopus for bibliographic searches and research evaluation. | |
| Others | Spaces and resources for PhD students and for electronic calculation: IT and network services, provided by the Polo 5 of the UNIPI Departmental IT System. | |
Quality Management
Since 2024, PhD courses are subjected to quality assessment. A Quality Management Commission has been appointed, composed of the coordinator and the vice-coordinator (Proff. Andrea Cavallini and Andrea Serra) and Profs. Marco Landi, Elisa Pellegrini and Giovanni Benelli, as well as a representative of the PhD students, Dr. Ugo Rogo. This section will contain (when available) the documents produced by the Commission, the students’ questionnaires and the evaluation forms.
Student Orientation
The PhD Programme presents the course to master’s degree students of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-environmental Sciences, during orientation meetings organized by the Department or by the various degree courses. A short brochure describing the doctoral course is available here.
Regulation of the PhD Programme
Link to the Pisa University general PhD regulation
Link to the PhD Programme in Agriculture, Food and Environment regulation