Gardens, Libraries and Museums commit to closer collaboration with University of Padua museums

The MoU, which was signed during a visit to Oxford on 14 and 15 March by a delegation of 20 academics from the University of Padua in northern Italy, includes working in partnership on future exhibitions, encouraging exchanges of staff and students, and sharing of knowledge and expertise.

The visit, which was hosted by Professor Anne Trefethen, included sessions exploring highlights from the collections of Oxford and Padua and parallel research sessions, where colleagues from across GLAM (including the Ashmolean, the Botanic Garden and the History of Science Museum) and the wider University (including History, Mathematics, Linguistics and Modern Languages) met with their Paduan counterparts to explore ideas for further collaboration.

The visit to Oxford follows a two-day meeting in Padua in November 2017, when the University of Padua hosted 23 academics from Oxford. The meeting comprised parallel academic panels across a wide range of academic fields and explored future academic partnerships and collaborations between the two institutions.

Professor Anne Trefethen, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for GLAM and People at the University of Oxford, said: 'This agreement builds on the close relationships that we have forged with colleagues at Padua over the past few years. We are delighted to be strengthening the ties between Oxford University's Gardens, Libraries and Museums and Padua's Museum Centre, and we look forward to developing exciting new collaborations in the future.'