Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) is a non-profit, non-partisan research institution established to carry out research in the field of sustainable development. Recognised by the President of the Italian Republic in July 1989, it has since become a leading international research centre. One of its principal aims is to promote interaction between academic, industrial and public policy spheres in order to comprehensively address concerns about economic development and environmental degradation. To this aim, FEEM has signed an impressive number of research contracts with external researchers and institutions, an internationalisation rate which is unparalleled in Europe: 70% of the contracts involve foreign researchers and research centres, thus creating an extensive network of scientific co-operation. Conference activities, working papers and books are also evidence of FEEM's research effort in the last 19-year period.
FEEM's activities are guided by four fundamental criteria: i) to analyse relevant and innovative research areas; ii) to focus on "real" world issues; iii) to integrate multi-disciplinary approaches; iv) to create and foster international research networks.
Research is organised into seven main areas: Climate Change Modelling and Policy; International Energy Markets; Natural Resources Management; Sustainability Indicators and Environmental Valuation; Knowledge, Technology and Human Capital; Privatisation, Regulation and Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Management.
Based on the results achieved in the fields of environmental management systems, climate change modelling and policy, the transfer and diffusion of knowledge and technology, the management of privatisation processes and corporate governance, environmental planning of the territory, FEEM has become the privileged interlocutor of a number of policy institutions, among which the IPCC, the European Commission, the Italian Ministries of the Environment, of Research and of Finance, and several Italian regions and local municipalities. FEEM has also co-operated with the World Bank, the OECD, the NBER, Resources for the Future, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the CEPR, the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, and several European and US Universities. Finally, FEEM is member of the European Forum on Integrated Environmental Assessment (EFIEA) and of the European Climate Forum.
FEEM research programmes have achieved important results, including the development of methodologies for environmental and social company reporting, models of evaluation of climate change, databases for the analysis of privatisation processes, new theories in the field of environmental voluntary agreements, new systems of indicators for environmental monitoring, the development of a unified framework for analysing economic incentives for the diffusion and the creation of knowledge.
Climate Change Modelling and Policy (CCMP) is one of the most active research lines in FEEM. Research in this programme addresses the socio-economic dimension of climate change, mitigation and adaptation policies. It focuses on a comparative evaluation of existing models and the development of new integrated assessment models for the study of policies aimed at climate change control. The goal is twofold: to make progress at the scientific and academic level, and to be up front in the policy dialogue and debate, which provides the programme team with the necessary inputs to develop innovative and constructive scientific research.
The researchers involved in CCMP Programme participate in international networks and study groups of scholars and scientists, in world-wide negotiations on climate change issues and in several projects funded by the European Commission and other sources, including the National Government and Regional/Local Authorities, Private National Foundations, the European Environment Agency, and the United Nations Environment Programme. In particular, thanks to the researches undertaken under this Programme, FEEM is member of the European Climate Forum and of the Climate Policy Network two international networks, which lead research and policy analysis in the field of climate change.
FEEM ranks 56th (1st in Italy) in a European ranking of leading Centres on Economic Research based on publications adjusted per Faculty members (Report for the EEA by P.P Combes and L. Linnemer, Journal of the European Economic Association, December 2003). FEEM has published 60 books with Edward Elgar Publishing (FEEM series on "Economics and the Environment"), Oxford University Press (FEEM series on "Studies in Economics"), and il Mulino (FEEM Series on "Economics, the Environment and Sustainable Development"), and over 1500 Working Papers. FEEM Working Papers are included in AgEcon, the Economics Research Institutes Paper Series of SSRN, RePEc, Berkeley University Press and in Econlit. A survey on FEEM research activities, including the organisation of workshops and conferences, FEEM Newsletter, is published twice a year. Since 1997, FEEM is publishing Equilibri, a quarterly journal on sustainable development. Since 2000 FEEM is publishing Rapporti sullo Sviluppo Sostenibile, a research series in Italian targeted to a non academic readership. The Newsletter, Working Papers and Rapporti sullo Sviluppo Sostenibile are downloadable from FEEM web site. The web site (www.feem.it), established in 1994 also represents a major means of dissemination of FEEM research activities.
FEEM has a large experience in the dissemination of theoretical and applied research. In ninteen years FEEM has organised over 250 seminars among which several workshops (over 3000 participants) and 13 large-scale conferences, including the first Congress of the European Association of Environmental Economists (Venice, 1990) the first World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists (Venice, 1998), the 17th Annual Congress of the European Economic Association and the 57th European Meeting of the Econometric Society (both in Venice, 2002).
Finally, FEEM regularly organises or co-organises training courses in environment-related issues. In particular, following its long time tradition of successful international post-graduate and doctoral training, through internships, fellowships and longer term research contracts, FEEM has been acknowledged as a Marie Curie Training Site, within the FP5 Marie Curie Fellowships' framework of the European Commission.
Further information is available at http://www.feem.it/
