Press Release
The Pizza Research Institute has signed a formal research partnership agreement with the University of Naples Federico II, establishing a joint research program on the historical and scientific origins of Neapolitan pizza. The partnership will enable annual researcher exchanges and co-publication opportunities.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHEESEVILLE, OH / NAPLES, ITALY — The Pizza Research Institute and the University of Naples Federico II have signed a formal Research Partnership Agreement establishing a joint program on the historical, biochemical, and cultural origins of Neapolitan pizza. The agreement was signed in a ceremony at Federico II's Department of Agricultural Sciences last Tuesday by PRI President Dr. Francesca Napolitano and Federico II Rector Prof. Matteo Loguercio, in front of an audience of approximately 60 faculty members and what witnesses described as "an unusually large number of photographers for an academic signing."
The Partnership
The agreement establishes a Joint Research Programme on Neapolitan Pizza Origins (JRPNPO), which will pursue three coordinated research initiatives over an initial five-year term:
Historical Origins Initiative: A collaborative archival and archaeological study of pizza's documentary and material history in Naples, tracing the emergence of what we now recognize as pizza from the earliest historical references through the establishment of the Margherita tradition in 1889. PRI's Dr. Crustworthy and Federico II's Prof. Luciana De Martino will co-lead this effort.
Biochemical Heritage Initiative: A comparative analysis of traditional Neapolitan sourdough starters, some of which have been maintained continuously for over a century, with a focus on microbial community composition, metabolic activity, and how biological diversity in starter cultures contributes to the distinctive flavor profile of Neapolitan pizza. Prof. Romano will lead PRI's contribution.
Cultural Transmission Initiative: A qualitative and ethnographic study of how Neapolitan pizza knowledge and technique are transmitted across generations, both within and beyond Italy — a study that PRI's institutional review board approved with the note that "the fieldwork requirements for this project are, frankly, enviable."
Annual Exchange Program
The partnership includes an annual researcher exchange enabling two PRI researchers and two Federico II researchers to spend three months at the partner institution each year. Applications for the inaugural 2024 exchange are already open to PRI faculty and postdoctoral researchers. Dr. Napolitano has confirmed that she has applied "preemptively," though she acknowledges she is technically ineligible under the program's eligibility criteria, which she helped write.
Joint publications under the partnership will carry dual institutional affiliations and will be submitted preferentially to the *Journal of Applied Pizzology*, with which Federico II's Department of Agricultural Sciences has negotiated a separate open-access agreement.
Statements
"This partnership represents a bridge between two institutions that share a commitment to taking pizza seriously when the rest of the world still thinks it's a joke," said Dr. Napolitano. "They have the history. We have the infrastructure. Together, we have an argument that is very difficult to dismiss."
Prof. Loguercio, speaking through an interpreter, expressed that the University of Naples Federico II was "honored to collaborate with the world's foremost institution of pizza science," and that he had personally been aware of PRI's work for many years — specifically since reading Dr. Napolitano's 2016 Detroit-style paper, which he described as "controversial in Naples" but "not without merit," a concession that was met with applause from the PRI delegation.
Next Steps
The Joint Programme's inaugural research agenda will be finalized at a working meeting in Naples in March 2024, which all parties have agreed will include a multi-pizzeria research dinner whose findings will be reported in a working paper due by year's end. Funding for the partnership's first two years has been secured through a combination of PRI institutional funds, a Federico II internal grant, and a €150,000 award from the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, whose program officer reportedly required only one phone call to be convinced of the project's merit.