1) Prof. I. Rossetti was responsible of a Research Agreement with the Schulich School of Engineering of the University of Calgary (Canada) (Prof. Nader Mahinpey).

Scope of the research agreement was the simulation and economic evaluation of new processes from renewables.

2) Prof. I. Rossetti was responsible since 2015, with three-years renewal for 2016-18) of a Research Agreement with the McDonald Institute of the University of Cambridge (Dr. Simon Stoddart, Dr. Letizia Ceccarelli).

The Project, called FABRICS, aims at the identification of the characteristics of clay production mainly applying chemical analysis by X-ray fluorescence (XRF). XRF is a non-destructive analysis and is portable in the case of the instrument available in Cambridge, so that it possibly allows analysis in field.

The specific aims were:

1. validation and testing of the experimental method: analysis of a selection of different ceramics (from various sites of discovery and with diverse visible differences, e.g. clay colour, pigments) for the setup of the procedure and the preliminary qualitative analysis of the materials;

2. calibration: representative standard samples will be prepared to calibrate the method, in order to identify the clay components;

3. collection of qualitative and quantitative data of the ceramics, statistical analysis of the data:

4. collection of modern clay for use as comparative reference groups;

5. sharing of knowledge of innovative scientific and research methods;

6. exchange of researchers according to the availability of funding;

7. organisation of local or international conferences and meetings/workshops with the purpose of promoting the research.

In this frame, Prof. I. Rossetti was visiting processor c/o the McDonald Institute in May 2016.