SARIB

Partner No. 8: International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS)

ICS is an international Institution operating as scientific/technological centre, within the legal framework of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, with headquarters located in Trieste, Italy. The Centre is funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The mandate of ICS specifically relates to the transfer of know-how and technology to developing and in transition countries, by promoting awareness and capacity building, disseminating scientific and technological information, project formulation and promotion. With this goal, ICS operates through the organization of training activities, scientific workshops, high level seminars, fellowships, the formulation and drafting of projects (feasibility studies) and the publication and editing of frontier issues. Other important implementation tools are the creation of databases on novel technologies and the development of decision support tools, networking activities with internationally recognized institutions.

In the present work programme, ICS activities focus on specific sectors within the areas of:

- Pure and applied chemistry
- Earth, environmental and marine sciences and technologies
- High technology and new materials
- Technology management and transfer.

Area of Pure and Applied Chemistry

Acknowledging that sustainable development depends upon the harmonization of economic growth and environment conservation and protection, the ICS Area of Pure and Applied Chemistry has identified as priority fields in its work programme the following themes, which are of key relevance to economic and industrial development as well as safeguard of the environment:

Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry
This is an important scientific and technological area for the development of environmentally friendly chemical processes, which are the basis for cleaner industrial production and also the key elements for an industrial pollution prevention approach. New, less polluting processes together with the optimization of existing processes depend to a great extent upon the improvement of catalyst performance in heavy and fine chemical production lines, with direct impact on the generated by-products or waste.

Environmentally Degradable Plastics
The expanding global production and consumption of polymeric materials coupled with increasing public awareness of environmental issues have created serious concern about problems related to the disposal of plastic waste generated by various sectors of human activity. Besides recycling, re-use, incineration and composting, new technological developments of environmental degradable plastics contribute dramatically to the tackling of the environmental issue in specific sectors of plastics use.

Combinatorial Chemistry and Technologies
These technologies have a strong impact on the development of new chemicals (pharmaceutical industries, agro-chemicals, new materials). Developing countries need to get acquainted with and gain expertise in combinatorial technologies to help local enterprises remain competitive and economically viable in the coming decades. Combinatorial chemistry and technologies have a potential influence not only on industrial growth, but also on environment protection. In fact, by optimizing industrial processes and production, with the lowering of relevant costs, less waste and fewer by-products are created.

Remediation. Technologies
One of the most urgent problems to be faced at a global level is the decontamination of soil and waters that have become polluted through domestic and industrial activities. Large polluted areas, in addition to having lost their eco-functionality, often represent a serious risk for human health. Policy for the restoration of natural resources is thus a priority in developing as well as in industrialized countries. In recent years, several remediation technologies have been developed for the decontamination of polluted sites, and many have proved to be very promising for the clean-up of contaminated water and soils.

Earth, Environmental & Marine Sciences & Technologies

Within the Area of Environment, particular reference can be made to technical support, among others, covering aspects of decision-support systems for sustainable industrial development and coastal zone management.

Decision-support systems for sustainable industrial development
ICS activities in decision-support aim at developing approaches for applying information technologies in order to increase the effectiveness of decision-makers and therefore the transfer of appropriate methodologies and technologies to individual emerging and developing countries. Aspects relevant to this technical area include process simulation, environment simulation, industrial siting, waste disposal planning, pollution monitoring. Decision-support and environmental impact assessment at ICS are provided by an integrated system based on technologies for sustainable industrial development.

Coastal Zone Management
Coastal zones are suffering intense impact from human pressures, through social and economic activities such as habitation, recreation, tourism, industrialization, port installation and shipping. This concentration is giving rise to a series of environmental problems intricately linked to the extreme fragility of coastal ecosystems and non-rational resource use, the main factors behind the degradation. Given the complexities of coastal systems and the multi-disciplinary approach required for integrated coastal zone management, the process requires that scientists, managers and policy-makers work together. ICS is promoting integrated initiatives by combining scientific, economic and legislative aspects. Databases are being developed to support decision-making for sustainable planning based on technological tools for resource management, pollution monitoring and marine navigation control.

Industrial Utilization of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
Medicinal and aromatic plant resources of great potential are found in most emerging and developing countries, but governments are seldom able to support their full exploitation. At the same time, the world market for phytopharmaceuticals is expanding rapidly, bringing increased demand for MAP material and opportunities for emerging and developing nations to benefit from their natural resources. ICS addresses industrial exploitation of MAP resources, by providing a scientific and technological platform for sustainable industrial growth. This is achieved through provision of a network of information databases, buildup of trained human resources, consolidation of existing technology, and provision of support to emerging and developing nations in identifying strategies that exploit their MAP resources to the full. Furthermore, process simulation and optimization techniques can play a major role in the development of new processes in essential oil extraction and in optimizing the existing ones.

High-tech & new materials

Laser technologies, applied in environmental monitoring and a wide range of industries, play a major role in modernization. Expertise in optical fibres is an integral part of this discipline: countries installing today need to learn about optical communication networks.
Composite materials exploit local resources to replace scarce building materials: industrial and other wastes are recovered.
Developing countries represent the prime market for solar cells and have most to gain from this clean, reliable technology.
The sophistication of a nation’s telecom technologies is a prime indicator of its degree of development and industrialization.

Cross-Area Support

These three units provide horizontal services to ICS, enabling it to carry out its work effectively.

Publicity and Promotion Unit
This Unit publishes publicity material, training packages, technical manuals and proceedings, at times as UNIDO co-publications. The Unit is also responsible for the web site, database and documentation content.
This Unit is also responsible for fund-raising, whether for ICS as a whole or for individual projects being promoted. The aim is to obtain support at governmental level both as financial contributions and as provision of experts. ICS also organizes or attends international governmental meetings to assist in identifying additional financial support.

Information Systems Unit
As well as providing operational support and maintenance, this Unit offers technical assistance in development of IT services at ICS, diagnostics tools, data analysis, modelling programs, networking, online communication and e-learning. Particular effort is devoted to development of technology assessment applications and dynamic databases.

Technology Management
Technology transfer lies at the core of the ICS mandate. Acknowledging that the needs of industrialists are immediate, ICS activities in supporting the technology transfer effort to developing countries are tailored to provision of directly applicable tools, such as guidelines for entrepreneurs, demand surveys, foresight methodologies, and benchmarking. These activities enjoy a cross-sectoral scope giving them relevance to all ICS technical areas.

ICS will contribute to SARIB as follows:
- Design of database moduls of the Sava River Basin.
- Formulation of features and expected performances of the GIS platform.
- Development of models for the environmental simulation of pollution expansion in water body and scenario simulations.
- Development of a harmonized protocol for prioritization of identified hot-spots.
- Integration of database moduls and dynamic modelling system to software-based Spatial Decision Support System.
- Gathering, assessment and validation information regarding soil remediation technologies and water treatment technologies
- Establishment of web site of accessible database of the above technologies, user-friendly data-entry system for simple updating of the repository, and a corresponding search-engine enabling fast and accurate information-finding (according to the rich set of criteria and/or their arbitrary combination)
- Compendia on soil remediation technologies and water/wastewater treatment technologies;
- Design and develop a software-based (web-based) Intelligent Decision Support System for Remediation Technology Assessment and Selection.
- Help in dissimination

EU Projects:

- Managers of innovation in environmentally Degradable Plastics MEDP (Leonardo da Vinci, Finalized)
- Implementation of the project “Development of new technologies for the treatment of waste water from agro-food and industrial production in Mediterranean countries - CAT-MED” (6FP, ongoing).
- EUGRIS - European Groundwater and Contaminated Land Remediation Information System (5FP, ongoing)
- SIAMS – Ship Information and Management System (EU - DGXIII, finalized)

Andrea Lodolo: Leader of WP4
1988 Degree in Industrial Chemistry (Diploma di Laurea) at the University of Padova, Italy
1989 National Exam for the Abilitazione all’Esercizio della Professione di Chimico
1988-1991 Researcher in the ESR Group of the Department of Physical Chemistry of the University of Padova, on development of innovative instruments for spectroscopic investigation ESR and ENDOR
1991 Technologist in charge of study and development of new production methodologies with a lower environmental impact, at ENICHEM Porto Marghera, Venezia, Italy, and subsequently Foreman of the Chloro-olephines and derivatives production units at the same plant.
1993 Technical Director in the physico-chemical and biological waste water treatment plant of Depura S.p.A., of Udine
1994 Project Leader in the Environmental field (urban and industrial waste treatment, recycling, etc.) for national and international enterprises.
1996 to date President of HydroTECH S.r.l., R&D Centre located in the AREA Science Park, dealing with development of waste water treatment technologies for the recovery and valorization of domestic and industrial waste, assessment of contaminated sites and planning of remediation interventions.
1997 to date Scientific advisor for the International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS), in the field of Remediation, also member of the Ad-Hoc International Working Group on Contaminated Land and of the CLARINET Working Group 2 on Decision Support Tools and Risk Based Land Management.
Publications:
“Studio di Fattibilita’ per il Monitoraggio dell’Inquinamento della Baia di Cartagena de Las Indias”, a project carried out in collaboration with the Colombian Ministry of Environment, with the approval of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1990
“Overview of Soil Remediation Technologies" (T. Jakpa, A. Lodolo, S. Miertus) UNIDO Emerging Technologies Series, 3 / 4 1998.
“Decision Support Tools, Application in Soil Remediation Technologies Evaluation and Selection” (S. Vranes, A. Lodolo, S. Miertus) ICS Proceedings Expert Group Meetings on “POPs and Pesticieds Contamination: Remediation Technologies” and “Clean Technologies for the Reduction and Elimination of POPs”, 2000
“Overview of Remediation Technologies for Persistent Toxic Substances” (A. Lodolo, E. Gonzalez, S. Miertus), Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology), vol. 52, 2001

Stanislav Miertus
MSc. in Physical Chemistry, Slovak Technical University (STU), Bratislava (1971); PhD. in Physical Chemistry (1975); DSc. in Biophysical Chemistry (1988); Associate Professor (1983); Full Professor at STU, Bratislava (1989)
From 1998 to present, S. Miertus is Deputy Managing Director of the International Centre for Science and High Technology of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (ICS-UNIDO), in Trieste, Italy, and Area Director for the ICS-UNIDO Area of Pure and Applied chemistry, covering four different fields, namely: Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry, Environmentally Degradable Plastics, Remediation, Combinatorial Chemistry and Combinatorial Technologies.
Director of training courses, workshops and Expert Group Meetings in the above mentioned fields, held in developing countries, such as Egypt, India, Turkey, South Africa, Malaysia, Philippines, Argentina, etc. Executive Coordinator of projects of the European Commission. Coordinator of the Project of Italian Ministry of Health.
His previous professional experiences were: Project leader at Poly Tech, Area Science Park, Trieste, Italy; contracting Professor at Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Trieste; Visiting scientist at the University of Pisa; Visiting professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City Univ. of New York, USA; Researcher at the “Institut de Chimie Biophysique, Paris, France.
His research activities have been focused on, physical and analytical chemistry, especially elucidation of structure and properties of bioactive compounds and biomacromolecules theory of solvent effects, design and development of anticancer and anti AIDS drugs, biosensors.
He co-authored approximately 200 papers and 3 patents
He is co-author and co-editor of the following books: “Molecular Spectroscopy” Alfa (1989); “Trends in Biosensors”, World Scientific (1992); “Combinatorial Chemistry and Technology: Principles, Methods and Applications”, Marcel Dekker Inc., (1999); and of several ICS-UNIDO books of proceedings and publications.

Gennaro Longo
Mr. Gennaro Longo was born in Rieti, Italy on 7 March 1947.
He got his degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of L’Aquila on 1974.
After his degree he attended several courses, seminars, etc. in process simulation and technology development, as well as in programming and informatics techniques.
During 1975/76 he has started teaching Chemistry and Inorganic Chemistry at the Technical High School of Rieti.
From 1976 to 1997 he has worked at CTIP (Compagnia Tecnica Internazionale Progetti), Rome, Italy as: Process Engineer, Project Manager, Head of Process Systems Engineer, Manager of Systems Engineering, Manager of the Computer Department, Proposal Manager, Technology and Licensing Manager.
During 1997 he worked for the CASALE Group, Lugano, Switzerland as Proposal Manager, dealing with the preparation of commercial offers for the four companies of CASALE: Ammonia Casale, Urea Casale, Methanol Casale and Chemicals Casale.
At the beginning of 1998 he worked for the first months at the Municipality of Fiumicino, Rome, Italy as Manager of the Environment Sector.
Since May 1998 he works at the International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS-UNIDO), Trieste, Italy, as Director for the Area of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences and Technologies.
He is responsible for all the activities carried out within this Area. In particular he is personally involved as expert on process simulation in all the activities implemented in this field.
Moreover, he has been co-ordinating the activities of the already approved EC Project: SIAMS (Ship Information and Management Systems), TR 4025-DGXIII, as far as ICS involvement is concerned within the partnership consortium. He was Associate Professor teaching Process Simulation at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the University of Padova, Italy. Since February 2003 he is also Director of the Area of High Technology of New Materials at ICS-UNIDO.

Mounir Ghribi
was born in Ain Draham, Tunisia on 1 July 1971. He got his “Diplome d’Ingenieur Agronome” at the Ecole Superieure d’Agriculture de Mateur, Tunisia on 1995. On 1996-1997 he got the Diploma of Specialized Post-graduate Studies on Environmentl Management of Natural Resources at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH), Crete, Greece. On 1997-1999 he got his Master Degree in Environment, with particular emphasis on GIS, Remote Sensing and Image Engineering, also at MAICH.During 1993 he did an internship at the Societe Marja d’Elevage et d’Agriculture, Tunisia, working mainly on statistical evaluation of the production and technical support to firms. On 1994 he did an internship at the Office des Terres Domaniales, Tunisia, working mainly in the preparation of an activity report on the development of animal and forage production. On 1995 he worked as engineer at the Commissaire Regional du Developpement Agricole, Ministry of Environment, Tunisia for the preparation of an Engineer’s thesis on rural development in the urban and peri-urban areas of Tunis. From 1996 to 1997 he worked as engineer at the Agence au Promotion des Investissements Agricoles, Tunisia, for the evaluation of projects and study of agriculture performance. On 1998 he started as fellow in the Area of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences and Technologies of ICS-UNIDO, Trieste, Italy, dealing mainly with GIS and Remote Sensing. Since 2000 he is working at ICS-UNIDO as an Environmental Technologies Engineer giving as permanent staff his scientific support for decision-support systems (GIS, Remote Sensing, Multicriteria Analysis, etc.) and coastal zone management.