AIS has taken part in the development of the micro-credential and university collaboratory “Researching Pompeii: an interdisciplinary course in history, archaeology and heritage”, promoted by the University of Valencia, partner of AIS, with the support of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
This innovative academic initiative brought together around twenty university students in Pompeii, who experienced a unique learning opportunity combining history, archaeology and cultural heritage from an immersive and interdisciplinary perspective, enriched by the vision and experience of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe through AIS and The European Route of Historic Pharmacies and Medicinal Gardens.
Intergenerational and inclusive learning inspired by the European model
The combination of the two educational models — micro-credential and collaboratory — contributed to the intergenerational dimension of the academic experience.
Through the collaboratory, university students shared in situ learning with participants of La Nau Gran, the University of Valencia’s programme promoting active and meaningful lifelong learning.
This approach, strongly promoted since 2022 by the European Union to foster more flexible and inclusive learning opportunities (EU Education Portal), is an integral part of all research, educational or cultural initiatives included in the Three-Year Action Plan of AIS.
Among them stands out the project Hygeia Legacy – SPICES (2024–2025), a European Cross-Border Cooperation project developed within the European Heritage Days of the Council of Europe and the European Union. The project resulted in the documentary SPICES: European Tales of Ancient Medicinal and Culinary Legacies, highlighting the intergenerational dimension in preserving millenary cultural legacies related to tradition, biodiversity and materia medica, sources of food and rituality.
This same perspective will once again be central to the third edition of the International Seminar “Hygeia Legacy”, to be held in Torregrotta (Sicily) on 17–18 November 2025, under the theme Medicinal Plant Heritage and Sustainable Rural Entrepreneurship for Young Europeans.
Pompeii as a living classroom: research and new projects
For two weeks, Pompeii became a living classroom, allowing students of the micro-credential and collaboratory to work directly on-site in some of the most emblematic areas of the ancient Roman city — such as the House of the Vettii, the Forum and the public baths — where extraordinary examples of architecture, art and daily life are preserved.
On these same sites, Pompeii also posed stimulating challenges for applied research, drawing from decades of accumulated archaeological, archaeobotanical, archaeometric and artistic evidence. This wealth of data now forms the basis for a future project aiming at the recreation of the ancient Pompeian gardens, currently lost.
The project, led by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii in collaboration with the University of Valencia, will be developed within an interdisciplinary framework involving experts and institutions of international prestige — among them, AIS and the Cultural Route of the Council of Europe it represents.
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