The research domain Innovation in Culture, Society and Public Administration (ICS) has the mission of contributing to the development of strategic and innovative research projects with and for public administrations, trade associations and the world of the third sector, supporting growth that lead to the improvement of services and the quality of life of people.

The team is made up of researchers with multidisciplinary skills: engineers, architects, computer scientists, planners, graduates in human and social sciences, economists.

ICS operates on the following applied research programmes:

• UNESCO and Cultural Heritage
• Wellbeing and sustainable society
• Public Policies & social innovation
• Extended Reality Lab (XRLab)

Cultural Heritage is a resource of inestimable value for the territory and for the communities that live there. Particularly relevant, from this point of view, is the support to the Administrations interested in preparing applications for the various programs promoted by UNESCO. In addition to these operational activities, ICS manages, in coordination with the Polytechnic of Turin, the UNESCO chair in “New paradigms and instruments for the management of bio-cultural landscape”.

The domain also addresses the paradigm of sustainable development by placing a line of research capable of measuring the progress of societies by considering its economic, social and environmental aspects. The research activities, guided by the development trajectories traced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, concern well-being and sustainable living in an inclusive society, aimed at promoting sustainable and fair behaviour by consumers and businesses.

ICS also develops a specific line of activity concerning the digital transformation of the public sector and the third sector: the analysis of public policies is performed through constant monitoring of the policy panorama at regional, national and international level with reference to specific issues, according to the evolution of political priorities and the main technological evolutions in progress.

The domain includes the Extended Reality Lab (XRLab) which aims to explore the potential of immersive digital technologies, in particular Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality, designing and creating concrete application cases capable of generating positive impacts on the territory, on the heritage culture and people’s lives.