Growing public engagement initiatives signaling changing functions in Italian universities,

With its ever-increasing role in both the economy and society, knowledge is having significant consequences on university functions and internal or-ganization. Our research on Italian Universities has shed light on a recent development of a new definition of the ‘Third Mission’ aiming at activities establishing relationships both with the economic world (Technological Transfer) and society (Public Engagement), but which are at the same time sensitive to sustainability initiatives. By means of a comparison between twelve universities, our research reveals the different development of the two types of activities as consequences of the choices made by the indi-vidual governances and/or the predominant disciplinary areas in each uni-versity, in addition to the characteristics of the reference territories.