The “Avanzi” Research Center is one of the largest research centers in Europe for the study of sustainable agricultural systems. Located within the Natural Park of "Migliarino – San Rossore – Massaciuccoli" and the biosphere reserve "Selve Costiere di Toscana," it covers an area of 1400 hectares.

In nearly fifty years of existence, the CiRAA has followed an operating mode based on research, experimentation, and innovation transfer, crucial for identifying models of sustainable development for the territory and its social fabric. The relationship between modern society and agriculture has substantially changed; agriculture not only produces food but also fulfills other equally important roles:

• Non-food production and renewable energy (biomass)
• Landscape conservation
• Maintenance of biodiversity
• Conservation of soil fertility
• Reduction of environmental pollution
• Preservation of peasant culture
• Rural hospitality

It is important to remember that the primary sector is strongly influenced by environmental factors and the management model chosen by farmers. To ensure the transfer of innovation to the agricultural world, it is necessary to adopt a participatory system approach, based on:

• Interdisciplinary study of technical, economic, and environmental problems, and the potential environmental impact of innovative products and processes
• Sharing of objectives and management strategies with selected groups of end-users (stakeholders)
• Transfer of results to the operational world

Over the years, CiRAA has become a large laboratory of agri-culture, where research, experimentation, and transfer represent a mutualistic symbiosis, and each activity finds reasons for existence and development in the others

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