The recent history of Italian University Museums starts with the first Network created by 12 Italian Universities, coordinated by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, for a project, approved and financed in the year 2013 by the Ministry of the University and Research, The Network realized a bilingual web portal to increase the interest for science through the knowledge of museums collections and to promote a critical, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary dialogue (https://of.unimore.it/retemusei/www.retemuseiuniversitari.unimore.it/site/home.html).
This Network, increased in 2014 with the inclusion of two Universities, between 2015 and 2018 realized a new project concerning educational paths for lifelong guidance to the scientific method and culture published in the second section of the Network web portal. In 2019 the Network, with other Universities, for a total of 29, created a quarterly web magazine University Heritage. Cultural Heritage on the web (https://universityheritage.eu/).
Another relevant initiative for Italian University Museums is the first census promoted and carried out by CRUI – Conference Italian University Rectors – between 2017 and 2019. This census revealed that 40 Universities have museums for a total of 182, number certainly set to increase.
Now for the Italian University Museums, like for all Italian museums, there is a challenge: to become part of an articulated network coordinated by the Ministry of Culture, the National Museum System.
