Europe is currently facing several environmental, economic and social challenges, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian war. However, the ongoing challenges could provide an opportunity to rethink economic and business models and policies, to favor a sustainability transition. In this regard, there is growing interest in the development of new production and consumption models. This need to deploy new consumption and production models also applies to the fashion industry. The fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of global emissions of CO2 (Niinimäki et al., 2020), and textile production is a big water consumer, reaching 93 billion cubic meters annually (Ellen McArthur Foundation, 2017). Additionally, clothing consumption has increased rapidly due to the fast-fashion phenomenon, which encourages the purchase-discard model leading to large volumes of unwanted items. Since the fashion supply chain is one of the most complex ones, many activities during the design, manufacture, consumption and disposal of fashion items occurring on a global scale cause unforeseen and less explored problems. Against this background, this research will be articulated along the following three research lines: (1) assessing the impact of current unsustainable production/consumption behaviors; (2) identifying measures (e.g. nudging) to prompt the needed behavioral changes; (3) assessing the impact of global trade in a Global North/ Global South perspective.

Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methods for empirical research in behavioural economics, including survey analysis for consumers and field and laboratory experimental economic analysis; interdisciplinary skills and motivations to create bridges between fields.

Research at UnitelmaSapienza is carried out in various Laboratories, Research Centers and Research Groups. The Bioeconomy in Transition Research Group (BiT-RG) is involved in research concerning the emergence of a circular and bio-based economy relying on the use of renewable resources for the production of novel products for various applications. The group is composed by 20 researchers from various European universities. It also includes three PhD students. The scientific coordinator is Piergiuseppe Morone, Full Professor of Economic Policy at UnitelmaSapienza. Most of the BiT-RG research activities are channeled in the Sustainability Transition strategic area.