FRANCIA Enrico

Enrico Francia
Born in Piacenza, Italy (June 11, 1975)
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8709-1002
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enrico-francia-phd-384b0714/
RESEARCHGATE: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Enrico-Francia

#SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION
Author of 77 peer reviewed scientific articles (70 original articles, 6 review articles, 1 conference paper) and 9 book chapters (of which 4 Conference papers). The Scopus data summary (ID: 22953293200) as of March 31, 2022 reports an h-index of 27 with 3460 citations from 2759 documents.
Author of several communications in conference proceedings as well as of various publications in national journals and annals. Co-proponent of the patent “Digestate-based fertilizer enriched with biostimulant microorganisms and method for producing it” (n. 102018000010992, 11/12/2018).

#EDUCATION AND CURRENT POSITION
2000 Five-year degree in Biological Sciences (110/110cum laude), University of Parma
2002 (Aug-Sep) Visiting scholar at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute and the Pioneer-DuPont laboratories, supervisor Dr. J. Antoni Rafalski
2005 PhD in Plant Biology, University of Milan
2005-2006 Experience as PostDoc, Experimental Institute for Cereal Research, Fiorenzuola d'Arda (PC)
2006-2019 Researcher at the Department of Life Sciences (DSV), University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE)
2020-today Associate Professor of Agronomy and crop science at DSV - UNIMORE

#ACADEMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL COMMITMENTS
Member of the Agrifood scientific/teaching area of the Department of Life Sciences, coordinator of the MSc course 'Integrated Sustainability of Agricultural Systems' (LM-69 SISTA). Teacher of the BSc course 'Agricultural and food science and technology' (L-25 STAA) and of the PhD in 'Science, Technology and Agro-Food Biotechnology' (STEBA). Member of the DSV Research Commission and of the UNIMORE Research Observatory. Deputy Director of the Interdepartmental Centre BIOGEST-SITEIA for technology transfer and industrial research, in which he coordinates the 'Sciences, Technologies and Protection of Raw Materials' area. UNIMORE representative in the "Sustainable and competitive food production" Trajectory-4 working group of the National Cluster Agrifood (ClAN) and in the Emilia Romagna region Clust-ER GREENTECH.

#AREAS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST DEVELOPED OVER TIME
- Agronomic and genomic factors for sustainable intensification and quality of production
- Ecophysiological response of herbaceous crops to environmental stresses
- Molecular aspects of adaptation to the environment in small-grain cereals
- Identification of processing tomato ideotypes for low-input cultivation
- Use of biostimulants for the qualitative and quantitative improvement of production
- Enhancement of digestate from biogas plants for the production of innovative fertilizers
- Morpho-physiological and molecular aspects of the interaction between crops and beneficial soil microorganisms (AMF and PGPB)

#SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
2001-2005 Integration of applied agricultural sciences with advanced molecular studies. He organized and collaborated in laboratory and field experiments to study the interaction between barley cultivation and abiotic stresses (cold and drought). He was responsible for maintaining a barley double-haploids population that segregate for multiple traits (adaptation, feeding and malting characters). Besides evaluating its agronomic performance, he studied the molecular bases of adaptation to Mediterranean environments.
2006-2014 Collaborator of Prof. Nicola Pecchioni (PI), he took part in several projects to study the biology and ecophysiology of herbaceous crops by integrating genomic and agronomic knowledge to ensure adequate qualitative and quantitative production. Target crops: barley, wheat, processing tomato as well as model species (Switchgrass and Brachypodium). He applied molecular markers for biodiversity characterization of crops (e.g. Zucchini and wheat). Fields of interest were crop growth and development, plant-environment interaction, and grain yield and quality. He contributed to the activities of the High Technology Network of Emilia Romagna region (2005-2007, CEREALAB laboratory; 2008-2010, SITEIA laboratory; 2011-2014, BIOGEST-SITEIA).
2015-today. PI of the 'Crop Production' group, he performs basic/industrial research integrating agronomic and "-omic" approaches in order to improve the productivity and sustainability of crops. Main projects concerned (1) effects of N fertilizer and sowing density on durum wheat gluten quality (Smart Wheat project, Barilla Spa collaboration); (2) early development and resistance to blossom-end rot of processing tomato under low-input farming (Genbacca project, ISI Sementi Spa and Mutti Spa collaboration); (3) development of organo-mineral fertilizers based on digestate from biogas plants; (4) root-microbiota (PGPR and AMF) association in tomato and corn.

#EDITORIAL/REVIEWER ACTIVITY
Associate Editor of Crop & Pasture Science (CSIRO Publishing, ISSN 1836-5795) since 2014. Guest Editor of the Special Issues "Organic vs. Conventional Cropping Systems" and "Sustainable Agronomic Strategies for Enhancing Tomatoes Yield and Nutritional Quality" for Agronomy (MDPI, ISSN 2073-4395), 2019-2022.
Reviewer for several scientific journals: MDPI-Agronomy, Crop & Pasture Science, Euphytica, European Journal of Agronomy, Plant Biology, Plant Breeding, Plant Science, Scientia Horticulturae, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, PlosOne.
Project reviewer for Italian and foreign government organizations: GARC - Czech Science Foundation Grant Proposal 2008, OTKA - Hungarian Scientific Resea rch Fund 2011, NSERC - The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2013, MIUR - Futuro in Ricerca 2013, ANVUR - VQR2011-2014 2016.
Reviewer/member of the jury of PhD final exam for the Doctoral School Agrisystem (UCSC) in 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2020, and for the PhD in Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences and Technologies - University of Bologna in 2018 and 2019.

#TEACHING ACTIVITY
Faculty at DSV UNIMORE since 01/03/2006, he has been entitled for: Organic Farming, 3CFU (till 2009/10), Ecophysiology of crop yield, 3CFU (till 2010/11), Forage crops, 2CFU (module of the course Animal Nutrition and Feeding, in 2011/12 and 2012/13), Fundamentals of cropping - 6CFU (module of the course Crop Production, from 2012/13 to date), General Agronomy - 6CFU (from 2014/15 to date), Good agricultural practices and identity preservation 3CFU (module of the course Biotechnology and agronomy for safety and identity preservation of agrifood products, from 2019/20 to date), Herbaceous Agro-ecosystems - 6CFU (from 2021/22 to today).
Since 2017, teacher for the post-baccalaureate IFTS (ESF and Emilia-Romagna Region) courses: "Made in Italy agro-food product technician: supply chain, enhancement and export" (IFOA) module "Agri-food production chains" (8h/year); "Higher Technician for technologies for marketing and enhancement of food products" (ITS Tech & Food Parma Foundation) module "Plant Production" (10h/year).

#SUPERVISOR/TUTOR
Supervisor of 25 degree theses for BSc in Agricultural and Food Science and Technology (UNIMORE), 1 thesis for the BSc in Herbal Science and Technology (UNIMORE) ) and 3 thesis of the MSc Food Safety Control. Supervisor or co-supervisor of 7 students for BSc Agricultural Plant Biotechnology (UNIMORE), n.2 for BSc Biotechnology (UNIMORE), n.5 for BSc Plant Biotechnology (UNIMORE) ) and 1 MSc Industrial Biotechnology (UNIPR).
Supervisor/co-supervisor of 9 PhD students: M. Martelli, industrial doctorate position with ESASEM Spa, 35th cycle; R. Gatti, industrial doctorate position with CORTEVA Spa, 34th cycle; F. Caradonia, position with scholarship, 32nd cycle; L. Mareri, position with scholarship, 30th cycle; P. Pagan, position without scholarship (CORASEEDS Srl collaboration), 26th cycle; L. Giusti., position without scholarship, (CREA-GB center collaboration) 26th cycle; V. Mazzamurro, position with scholarship, 25th cycle; A. Caffagni, position with scholarship, 22nd cycle; A. Tondelli, position without scholarship, (CREA-GB center collaboration), 20th cycle.

#COMPETITIVE AND NON-COMPETITIVE FUNDS
30-12-2013 - 29-12-2015 PI "ER-Flower - Cultivation technique and varieties of flowering courgettes for the production of food specialties" (Emilia Romagna Region, 2012). 24 months. Euro 101,964
01-04-2016 - 31-03-2018 "Smart Wheat - Identification of low-impact wheat varieties on subjects genetically predisposed to celiac disease for the development of food products capable of preventing the onset ". (Emilia Romagna Region). 24 months. 219,306 Euros (total project 1,049,158 Euros).
01-06-2016 - 31-05-2018 "Genbacca - New genotypes tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses for sustainable management in grape and processing tomato". (Emilia Romagna Region). 24 months. Euro 332,088 (total project Euro 1,121,519).
25-01-2017 - 31-12-2018 "Beta-Sweet - Development of functionalized plants" between the BIOGEST-SITEIA Center (UNIMORE) and the company SOREMARTEC ITALIA S.r.l. (Ferrero group). Euro 75,000
30-08-2019 - 14-02-2020 “Tomato RICCIO di Parma - a PILOT supply chain for the enhancement of local horticultural varieties and disadvantaged areas”. 24 months (Emilia Romagna Region). Euro 59,558 (total project 214,885).
01-05-2019 - today "Use of biomass from industrial hemp for the production of energy and new biochemicals - UNIHEMP". 36 months (Ministry of University). Euro 583,121 (total project Euro 6,735,045)
30-08-2019 - today "Structuring and enhancement of the mountain potato supply chain". 24 months. (Emilia Romagna Region). 30 months Euro 156.407.
15-07-2020 - today "Hydrolyzed Soil and Habitat Fertilizer (FISH), effects on crops and soil of a fertilizer / biostimulant from organic animal and plant compounds for the Ligurian territory". 24 months. (Liguria Region). Euro 360,096.