The "Consorzio Collegio Carlo Alberto"

The "Consorzio Collegio Carlo Alberto" (Charles Albert College Consortium) was founded in March of 1999 with the objective of creating a centre for higher learning and research in economics and finance in the "Collegio Carlo Alberto" located in Moncalieri, in the province of Turin, an idea vigorously promoted by Gianni Merlini, Chairman of the "Compagnia di San Paolo". The Consortium, a non-profit institution whose president is professor Giovanni Zanetti (*), signed a thirty-year lease with the Barnabite Fathers who are the proprietors of the College; the lease gives the Consortium full responsibility for administering the entire complex as well as the furnishings and collections that constitute its historical, cultural and artistic heritage.

The complex is destined to undergo a functional restoration which will adapt it to the needs of the educational and research activities which it will host, and to this end a group of architects is already at work. Meanwhile, a part of the building is occupied by the following institutions: CORIPE Piemonte (which runs two Masters degree programmes, in Economics and Finance), together with its two research groups - CeRP (Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies) and LABOR ("Laboratorio R. Revelli" - Centre for Employment Studies); HERMES (Higher Education and Research on Mobility Regulation and the Economics of Local Services); Centre for Studies on Federalism.

On the occasion of the Consortium's inaugural ceremony Merlini emphasised the fact that the Compagnia di San Paolo considers the development of research and the encouragement of 'centres of excellence' in post-graduate education to be priority areas of concern. The centre being created here is therefore an expression of this conviction.

(*) The Consortium's members are, in addition to the Compagnia di San Paolo, the University of Turin and CORIPE Piemonte.