Bruna De Marchi is an Italian researcher currently associated with SVT, UiB. She is also affiliated with Egesta Lab, Faculty of Science at UBC in Vancouver, Canada, and with the not-for-profit consultancy Società per l’Epidemiologia e la Prevenzione “Giulio A. Maccacaro”, Milan, Italy.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bruna studied Political Science and Sociology in Italy and the US. Her early research work was in sociolinguistics and in inter-ethnic relations at the Italian-Austrian-Yugoslavian border, long before the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After a devastating earthquake hit her region in 1976, she became interested in the sociology of disasters and helped to establish the Mass Emergencies Programme at the Institute of International Sociology of Gorizia, Italy, which she subsequently headed for some 15 years.

She has been engaged in a number of research, training, consultancy and planning activities, and she gradually expanded her interest for hazards and risks of natural origin to include those of human origin and most notably the interactions between the two. Her expertise in disaster planning, prevention, response and recovery is mainly in organizational, social and cultural aspects, including risk perception, communication and governance. From 1990 to 1994, she was summoned as a seconded national expert at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy. One of her tasks was to envisage strategies and design guidelines for the implementation of the information requirements mandated by the so called “Seveso Directive” on major-accident hazards.

Bruna is used to working in international and multidisciplinary settings, with colleagues from a number of different disciplines and backgrounds, as well as non-academic experts. Her most recent research projects are on health and environmental issues in areas exposed to pollution from industrial installations.

Blog post for ESRC STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability),  25.03.2020: Post-normal pandemics: Why COVID-19 requires a new approach to science (with David Waltner-Toews, Annibale Biggeri, Silvio Funtowicz, Mario Giampietro, Martin O’Connor, Jerome R. Ravetz), Andrea Saltelli and Jeroen P. van der Sluijs.)

Bruna also has a vast teaching experience, which includes full academic and training courses, dedicated modules, webinars, etc. Since 2013 she has also held an online course in ‘Media and risk communication’ in a Master in ‘Scientific journalism and science communication’ at the University of Ferrara, Italy.

2025

• De-Marchi, Bruna; Menoni, Scira (2025). Who Decides? Choosing Adaptation Tools for Climate Risk: A Post-normal Science Problem. (external link)
• Doccioli, Chiara; Sera, Francesco; Stoppa, Giorgia et al. (2025). “Aria di Ricerca in Valle del Serchio”: a cross-sectional citizen science study to evaluate CKD prevalence and associations with environmental risk factors in the Serchio Valley (Lucca, Tuscany, Italy). (external link)
• De-Marchi, Bruna (2025). From Subjects to Partners: Rethinking Research Methodologies through Citizen Science. (external link)

2024

• Naro, Angelo D.I.; Portaluri, Maurizio; Muni, Roberta et al. (2024). Può la scienza post-normale applicarsi all’oncologia radioterapica? Le incertezze della scienza nelle conoscenze disciplinari. (external link)

2023

• Kocman, David; Righi, Valeria; Errandonea, Lucia et al. (2023). Toolkit for conducting citizen science activities in environmental epidemiology. (external link)
• Marchi, Bruna De; Bertazzi, Pier Alberto; Biggeri, Annibale (2023). Pratiquer l’épidémiologie avec des communautés de pairs étendues. (external link)
• Froeling, Frederique; Gignac, Florence; Toran, Raul et al. (2023). Implementing co-created citizen science in five environmental epidemiological studies in the CitieS-Health project. (external link)
• Malavasi, Giulia; Marchi, Bruna De; Ficorilli, Antonella et al. (2023). Well-tempered environmental epidemiology: Ethics, sociology, and history in a citizen science project. (external link)

2022

• Marchi, Bruna De; Ficorilli, Antonella; Biggeri, Annibale (2022). Research is in the air in Valle del Serchio. (external link)
• Marchi, Bruna De; Mangia, Cristina; Biggeri, Annibale (2022). Manfredonia: come trasformare uno studio di epidemiologia ambientale in una ricerca post-normale. (external link)
• Marchi, Bruna De; Menoni, Scira (2022). Incontri ravvicinati tra sociologia, urbanistica e scienza post-normale per la prevenzione dei rischi. (external link)

2021

• Biggeri, Annibale; Marchi, Bruna De; Donzelli, Gabriele et al. (2021). Aria di ricerca in Valle del Serchio: scenari e implicazioni.. (external link)
• Ficorilli, Antonella; Maccani, Giovanni; Balestrini, Mara et al. (2021). Investigating the process of ethical approval in citizen science research: The case of Public Health. (external link)
• Froeling, Frederique; Gignac, Florence; Hoek, Gerard et al. (2021). Narrative review of citizen science in environmental epidemiology: Setting the stage for co-created research projects in environmental epidemiology. (external link)

2020

• Marchi, Bruna De (2020). Societal Vulnerability and Resilience in the COVID-19 Crisis. (external link)
• Saltelli, Andrea; Sluijs, Jeroen P van der; Funtowicz, Silvio Oscar et al. (2020). Post-normal pandemics: Why COVID-19 requires a new approach to science. (external link)

2019

• Marchi, Bruna De; Funtowicz, Silvio Oscar (2019). Tutti dalla parte di Greta?. (external link)

2018

• Marchi, Bruna De; Funtowicz, Silvio Oscar (2018). Vecchie risposte a nuove sfide. (external link)
• Baldassarre, Giuliano Di; Kreibich, Heidi; Vorogushyn, Sergiy et al. (2018). Hess opinions: An interdisciplinary research agenda to explore the unintended consequences of structural flood protection. (external link)

2017

• Marchi, Bruna De; Funtowicz, Silvio Oscar (2017). Scienza e democrazia in crisi: un viaggio verso il nuovo che ancora non c’è. (external link)
• Benessia, Alice; Marchi, Bruna De (2017). When the earth shakes … and science with it. The management and communication of uncertainty in the L’Aquila earthquake. (external link)

2016

• Gianicolo, Emilio Antonio Luca; Mangia, Cristina; Cervino, Marco et al. (2016). Studio ecologico sulla mortalita dei residenti a Manfredonia dal 1970 al 2013. (external link)

2015

• Marchi, Bruna De (2015). Risk Governance and the integration of scientific and local knowledge. (external link)
• Vigotti, Maria Angela; Mangia, Cristina; Cervino, Marco et al. (2015). Studio epidemiologico sullo stato di salute dei residenti nel comune di Manfredonia. L’avvio dello studio raccontato dai ricercatori. (external link)
• Biggeri, A; Vigotti, M. A.; Mangia, C et al. (2015). Studio epidemiologico sullo stato di salute dei residenti nel Comune di Manfredonia. Fase 2. Scenari e implicazioni. (external link)

2014

• Marchi, Bruna De (2014). Scientific advice and the case of the L’Aquila earthquake. (external link)
• Marchi, Bruna De (2014). Dal caso Boffetta alcune riflessioni generali su cos’è oggi l’attività scientifica”. Rubrica: I rischi della comunicazione. (external link)

2013

• Marchi, Bruna De (2013). Lost in translation’: top-down approaches to public participation. (external link)
• Marchi, Bruna De (2013). L'Aquila verdict reignites the debate over science and political power. (external link)

2012

• Seippel, Ørnulf; Marchi, Bruna De; Garnåsjordet, Per Arild et al. (2012). Public opinions on biological diversity in Norway: Politics, science, or culture?. (external link)
• Marchi, Bruna De (2012). Per costruire un processo integrato di ricerca e prevenzione a Taranto (Building an integrated process of research and prevention in Taranto - Southern Italy). (external link)
• Scolobig, Anna; Marchi, Bruna De; Borga, Marco (2012). The missing link between flood risk awareness and preparedness: findings from case studies in an Alpine Region. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Additional publications:

De Marchi, Bruna; Biggeri, Annibale; Cervino, Marco; Mangia, Cristina; Malavasi, Giulia; Gianicolo, Emilio; Vigotti, Mariangela. 2017. “A participatory project in environmental epidemiology: Lessons from the Manfredonia case study" (Italy 2015-2016). WHO Europe Public Health Panorama 3, 2: 321-327. (Published also in Russian Пример из практики, 3, 2: 328-335)

De Marchi, Bruna. 2018c. “Comments on the Dialogues”.  Pp.146-159 in Guimarães Pereira, Ângela; L’Astorina, Alba; Ghezzi, Alessia; Tomasoni, Irene (Eds) Dialogues on Food - Dialoghi sul cibo. Food Futuring Tours #expo2015. EUR 28213. Luxembourg: European Commission. doi:10.2788/254857 and doi: 10.27.88/684250.

In a current EU funded project, CitieS-Health, local residents are involved as research peers, meaning that their knowledge, life experience, needs and demands are taken into consideration in all phases of the investigation, from the framing of the research questions, to the selection of the methods, the analysis of data and the ensuing recommendations for policy interventions.