I am a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Pisa. I hold my Industrial PhD in Human Sciences: psychology, communication and social sciences at the University of Macerata (UNIMC).
During my Ph.D., I had the opportunity to gain experience in applied research in sensory analysis, consumer science, and neuromarketing at the Italian Centre of Sensory Analysis (CIAS). As a visiting PhD student, I spent some months at the Department of Agri-Food Economics and Marketing in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development of the University of Reading, focusing on Food Policy and Marketing Research Methods.
I currently work as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Pisa and my research concentrates on innovation adoption processes in agriculture, digitalization in rural areas, twin transition, and agri-food marketing.

Key research interests

• Innovation in agriculture and rural areas
• Rural development strategies
• Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS)
• Digital ecosystems in rural areas

Core competences

• Multi-actor participatory approaches
• Rural and regional development
• Marketing and consumer behaviour

EU-funded and national projects

Agritech – PNRR (MUR) – Centro Nazionale per le Tecnologie dell’Agricoltura – Spoke 9 New technologies and methodologies for traceability, quality, safety, measurements and certifications to enanche the value and protect the typical traits in agri-food chains (2022-2025)
SmARTIES – Puzzling Out Smart Ruralities, Sound Knowledge And Rural (Agricultural/Agrifood) Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. Programme Funding PRIN 2020 (2022-2024)
NEMOS – A new educational model for acquisition of sustainability competences through service-learning. Programme Funding: co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union

See the list of all projects the group is involved in here

Some recent publications

Mignani, C., Ferrara, A., Tomasi, S., Moretti, M., & Cavicchi, A. (2024). The role of EIP-AGRI Operational Groups as a driver for innovation in viticulture. Economia agro-alimentare/Food Economy-Open Access, 26(3).

Galenko, O., Shevchenko, A., Ceccanti, C., Mignani, C., & Litvynchuk, S. (2024). Transformative shifts in dough and bread structure with pumpkin seed protein concentrate enrichment. European Food Research and Technology, 250(4), 1177-1188.

Mignani, C., Ferrara, A., Tomasi, S., Ferrara, C., Aleffi, C., Paviotti, G., & Cavicchi, A. (2024). Consolidating Mechanisms for Co-creating Innovation in Rural Areas: How Universities and Public Institutions Can Bring Value to the Territory Through Collaboration and Knowledge Exchange. In The Italian Association of Agricultural Economists Conference (pp. 137-142). Springer, Cham.

Litvynchuk, S., Galenko, O., Cavicchi, A., Ceccanti, C., Mignani, C., Guidi, L., & Shevchenko, A. (2022). Conformational Changes in the Structure of Dough and Bread Enriched with Pumpkin Seed Flour. Plants, 11(20), 2762.

Tomasi, S., Paviotti, G., Ferrara, A., Mignani, C., & Cavicchi, A. (2024). Social Innovation in Depopulating Rural Areas: Exploring Drivers and Barriers and Related Roles of Intermediaries Throughout the Process. In The Italian Association of Agricultural Economists Conference (pp. 147-155). Springer, Cham.

Cavicchi, A., Mignani, C., Paviotti G., Aleffi, C., Tomasi, S. (2022). Co-creazione di conoscenza nelle aree rurali: l’attualità del pensiero di Ghino Valenti nell’attività di didattica, ricerca e terza missione dell’Università di Macerata. In Co-operazione e co-creazione. Nuove riflessioni politico-economiche e giuridiche nel pensiero di Ghino Valenti (pp. 165-181). Aracne.

Ferrara, C., Pierdicca, R., Paolanti, M., Aleffi, C., Tomasi, S., Paviotti, G., Passarini, P., Mignani, C., Ferrara, A., Cavicchi, A., Frontoni, E. (2020). The role of ICTs and public-private cooperation for cultural heritage tourism. The case of Smart Marca/Il ruolo delle ICT e della cooperazione pubblico-privati per il turismo culturale. Il caso di Smart Marca. IL CAPITALE CULTURALE. Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage, (10), 189-204.

Mignani, C., Bailetti, L. I., & Cavicchi, A. (2019). How consumer science can be employed in a terroir-based market strategy?. In Case Studies in the Wine Industry (pp. 89-100). Woodhead Publishing.

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