IMPACT
The uneven territorial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant gaps in knowledge about vulnerable and peripheral areas. Inner mountain regions, often characterised by limited access to services, weaker economic structures, and demographic fragility, remain underrepresented in national analyses. Understanding how the pandemic affected households, firms, and local systems in these areas—and how public policies mitigated or amplified these effects—is essential to design more equitable and effective interventions. At the same time, the crisis triggered local adaptive responses, highlighting the need to investigate the conditions enabling social innovation in marginal contexts.
The project
IMPACT – Impatti economici del COVID e aree interne montane – is led by FBK-IRVAPP and funded under the FRES2 programme of the Ministry of University and Research, with a duration from June 2025 to June 2027.
The project aims to expand knowledge on the socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 in inner mountain areas by addressing three main dimensions:
- mapping local communities and service accessibility;
- assessing the impact of public interventions;
- analysing processes of social innovation.
Methodologically, it integrates:
- fiscal microsimulation models (TREMOD) on households and firms;
- spatial microsimulation to estimate effects at small-area level;
- qualitative approaches to investigate social innovation dynamics.
Trentino acts as a laboratory for building and validating models based on administrative data, which are then extended to inner mountain areas across Italy. FBK-IRVAPP is responsible for model development, integration of micro and macro analyses, and overall evaluation design.
