Website: https://portale.unibas.it
The University of Basilicata (UNIBAS), founded in 1982 and headquartered in Potenza, Italy, is a public academic institution strongly oriented toward research and innovation in environmental sciences, engineering, and sustainable technologies. The university hosts several departments and research centers focusing on water and soil management, environmental remediation, and renewable resources.
The School of Engineering and the Department of Sciences have established international recognition for their work in adsorption technologies, photocatalysis, nanostructured materials, and water treatment systems. UNIBAS researchers develop novel natural-based and low-cost materials for the removal of contaminants from wastewater, greywater, and runoff, promoting sustainable solutions that integrate with circular economy principles.
Role in the NEWater Project
In NEWater, UNIBAS leads Work Package 2 (Rural Water Lab Validation), focusing on the development of cost-effective and environmentally sustainable water and nutrient recycling systems for rural areas. The team designs and optimizes nature-based filtration treatments using natural and modified materials (e.g., clays, biochar, activated carbon, chitosan) for the adsorption and degradation of contaminants of emerging concern.
UNIBAS also contributes to process modelling, environmental assessment, and data harmonization, ensuring efficient transferability of results across different geographical contexts. Its work supports the demonstration of rural wastewater reuse for irrigation and resource recovery, helping bridge laboratory innovations to real-world applications.
Key personnel involved
Monica Brienza
(Project Manager)
Monica Brienza is a fixed-term researcher at University of Basilicata (Potenza, Italy). She holds a B.S. and M.Sc. degree in Forestry and Environmental Sciences from the University of Basilicata. She conducted her Ph.D. in co-tutel at the Université de Perpignan via Domitia (France) in Solar-driven Advanced Oxidation Processes. She was a Marie Curie postdoc fellow at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) and conducted a second postdoc at the University of Montpellier (France). More recently, she is conducting a Fulbright postdoc at ASU. Her research investigates environmental contaminants with respect to (i) their fate on environment, and (ii) their sustainable removal in decentralized settings, (iii) risk assessment (total citations: 487, h-index: 12).
Vincenzo Trotta
Dr. Trotta holds a PhD in Biodiversity and Evolution from the University of Bologna and has extensive experience in evolutionary genetics, entomology, and quantitative biology. His research explores phenotypic plasticity, genetic variation, and adaptive responses of organisms to environmental stressors, using Drosophila as a model system.
At UNIBAS, he contributes to studies on agro-environmental interactions, focusing on the effects of biotic and abiotic factors on plant–insect dynamics, and on the integration of biological and statistical approaches to assess ecological sustainability. He has co-authored numerous scientific publications and book chapters on morphological evolution, developmental genetics, and environmental monitoring methods.
Filomena Lelario
Filomena Lelario is Associate Professor in Agricultural Chemistry at the Department of Sciences of University of Basilicata (Italy). Her research activity mainly concerns the development of new analytical methodologies based on the use of gas and liquid chromatography and low and high-resolution mass spectrometry for the determination of natural substances and xenobiotics in vegetable, biological, and environmental samples (total citations: 1051, h-index: 18).
Donatella Battaglia
Donatella Battaglia is Assistant Professor in Entomoly and Zoology at the Department of Sciences of University of Basilicata (Italy). Her research activity concerns interactions between aboveground and belowground organisms, biological control, insect behaviour and tritrophic interactions (total citations: 541, h-index: 10).
Adele Coppola
Adele Coppola is Assistant Professor, with experience in cost-benefit analysis, policies evaluation, and farm performance assessment (total citations: 836, h-index: 12).
Mauro Viccaro
Mauro Viccaro is associate professor of Rural Economics and Appraisal at the University of Basilicata (Italy), currently lecturing “Agri-food economics and policy” and “Agri-food marketing”. He received a PhD degree in Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences and Technology (University of Basilicata) in 2017, with a PhD project on Social Accounting Matrices as tools for rural regions development. He is member of different agricultural economics scientific associations, member of editorial board of Aestimum journal, and referee for different national and international journals. He published several papers on Italian and international peer-review journals. His scientific activity in the field of Agricultural Economics focuses on the sustainability of food systems, innovative agri-food supply chains, consumer behaviours, and the cost-effectiveness of innovative solutions in the agri-food sector, especially to promote waste reduction and bioenergy promotion.
Laura Scrano
Laura Scrano is Associate Professor of Soil Chemistry at the Department of European Cultures and Mediterranean of University of Basilicata (Italy). Her research activity concerns study of the degradation and transformation pathways of modern pesticides in the liquid phase and in the adsorbed phase, treatment of wastewater with nano-structured hybrids and study of the effects of crude oil contamination in soil (total citations: 1792, h-index: 25).
Luigi Milella
Luigi Milella is Professor in Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Botany and Pharmacognosy at the Department of Sciences of University of Basilicata (Italy). His research activity mainly concerns in biological analysis of antioxidant activity and inhibition of enzymes involved (total citations: 2799, h-index: 30).