The City of Bologna is the seventh largest city in Italy, with about 392.000 citizens, and ranks sixth in economic importance, standing out for its special industrial clusters, like automatic machinery, motor industry, electronics, fashion, agro-food sectors. Bologna has formally turned into a Metropolitan City, as officially recognized by the Italian government, on the 1st January 2015 and is now heading the metropolitan authority including 55 municipalities and totalling a population of about one million, beside being capital city of the region Emilia Romagna.
Bologna is one of the most culturally vibrant cities in Italy and, with more than 40 museums, it is a city of art with a very high rate of participation in cultural and leisure activities. The city also hosts the worldwide renowned University of Bologna, counting more than 80.000 students and representing one of the most culturally relevant institutions in the metro area. The Municipality is member of several EU networks of cities, among which Eurocities, European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR), Unesco Network of Creative Cities, and has a longstanding experience in participating to international projects, also in the field of development, migrations and human rights.
City of Bologna official website: www.comune.bologna.it