Monash Prato provides a space for knowledge exchange and ideas creation on one key theme per year of relevance to its local community from Chinese social and economic integration to innovation in the textile industry.

The Monash Prato Centre supports the activities of the Monash Injury Research Institute (MIRI) which is a key partner on the multi-nation database study that aims to increase the global benefits of in-vehicle technology to enhancing road safety.

In accident research, Monash Prato has played host to major European Framework Programme meetings (FP6 and FP7) that act as incubators of European collaborative projects.

The Bill Kent Foundation Fund supports conferences, scholarships and fellowships in the area of Medieval and Renaissance Studies including the Bill Kent Prato Research Fellow award.

Every year our experienced staff help thousands of students, academics and visitors from all over the world navigate their way through cross-cultural encounters and the local setting which make the Monash Prato Centre an alluring and unforgettable experience.

The Monash School of Music - Conservatorium and the local music school ‘Giuseppe Verdi’ in Prato have formed a partnership which includes the sharing of instruments, recital spaces, teachers and staging free concerts for the local community.

The Migrant Youth Writing Competition conceived by Monash Prato, with a judging panel comprising Italy’s top literary authors, provided an opportunity for second generation migrant local secondary students to tell their stories. These stories were so well-received that they have been published by the Province of Prato and the competition has become an annual event.

The ALTC award-winning Monash Prato Law Program exposes Monash students to expert teachers and practitioners of international law from many of our key partners such as the University of Florence, Arizona State University and Bar Illan University.

The Monash Prato China in the World Conference secured funding from the Region of Tuscany to provide simultaneous interpreting from English to Italian and Chinese so that the presentations were accessible to more people.

The Monash Prato China in the World Conference brought together Chinese migration experts from countries including Canada, the USA, the UK, Africa, France and Australia to compare and contrast different experiences of integration.

The Monash Prato Centre provides a ‘Site of Convergence’ for key research and innovation stakeholders in Australia and Europe in the areas of molecular biology, nuclear research and regenerative medicine, through the government-supported Australian Collaborative Research Network.

Whether jamming with Italian jazz masters, rubbing shoulders with Australian high court judges or strolling the streets of Florence with world authorities on the Renaissance, the Monash Prato Centre experience gives undergraduate students maximum exposure to role models.

Monash alumnus Jane Creenaune first exhibited her art at Monash Prato in 2008 and returned in 2011 as a joint Artegiro-Monash Prato artist-in-residence.

The ‘Youth and international mobility’ series of events hosted and organised by Monash Prato in collaboration with the Province of Prato created opportunities for Monash students and local students to meet.

CAI Kequn, 2011 Monash Prato Artist-in- Residence, from Wenzhou University in China, has enabled Monash Prato to create strong links with the often marginalised local Chinese community.

Postgraduate students from Monash University and the University of Warwick met ‘halfway’ in Italy at the Monash Prato Centre to undertake master classes in the areas of mobility, intercultural studies, language, literature, translation and cognate areas as part of the universities’ ‘Connecting cultures’ research network.