In the panorama of Italian start-ups,GEEG stands out as a reality born six years ago at the Sapienza University of Rome. Founded by a group of seven people, GEEG has quickly established itself as one of the most dynamic realities in the field of experimental research on mechanized tunnelling. In April, GEEG was the most visited startup on the KS platform, a result that reflects the growing interest and recognition of its innovative work.

GEEG stands out for its unique combination of geotechnical and chemical expertise, focusing on the technical and environmental characterization of excavated earth and rock, and the chemical products used in TBMs (Tunnel Boring Machines). The group works with civil and environmental engineering contractors, designers and additive producers to provide advanced and sustainable solutions. Its integrated approach, combining academic research and practical application, represents a unique presence in Italy and positions GEEG as a pioneer in the search for solutions in Italy's underground world for environmental sustainability.

In this interview, some members of the team talk about GEEG's journey, the challenges it has faced and the opportunities that lie ahead. We discover how this young company manages to combine practical experience with in-depth scientific knowledge, carrying out research projects and developing sustainable solutions that can revolutionise the field of mechanised excavation and beyond.

Could you briefly introduce GEEG?

Anita Di Giulio, founder and environmental engineer: GEEG is a start-up from the Sapienza University of Rome. We were founded six years ago after meeting at the faculty for various reasons. We started with seven partners and then gradually grew both in terms of activities and as a working group. We mainly deal with experimental research on various aspects of mechanised TBM tunnelling, and the "core" of our company is the union between geotechnics and chemistry. We can say that where there is an interaction between soil, rock, cement and chemical products, we are in our comfort zone. We are geotechnical and chemical engineers, so we have a solid background in these fields. In particular, we are involved in the reuse of soil and rock produced during excavation, soil conditioning with EPB (Earth Pressure Balance), drilling fluids and backfilling mortars.

You work mainly with civil and environmental engineering companies. How can GEEG's services be innovative and experimental solutions in the field of sustainability?

Anita Di Giulio: Our processes are sustainable in terms of time and cost: in my opinion, the startup can carry out research "effectively" by being able to act freely where the university or public institution encounters a series of bureaucratic obstacles. Think about requests for materials and equipment... it can really take a long time compared to the needs of the client. I'm not talking about basic research, of course, but applied research, which is very important to us because that's where it all starts, not just because we're a Sapienza start-up. It's a question of attitude and passion for the laboratory. So, it is certainly easy for us to "imagine" a research project and carry it out.

Environmental sustainability from a civil engineering perspective is not a new topic, but there is still much to be done. Some topics have been known for almost twenty years... such as CO2 emissions from cement production, to mention one. The design solutions to achieve certain sustainable goals are not yet as consolidated, due to regulatory issues. Research often moves faster than regulations. So we need to work not only on innovative materials and processes, but also on the standards for their safe use. There is a lot of work to be done and it is clear that we - living in this mixed context between public and private - can be reactive in proposing or applying sustainability criteria.

From your words and background, the research aspect seems to have been ingrained for a long time. How did you approach the more entrepreneurial aspect of your activity? Were you starting a new chapter, or was one of you already involved in it?

Anita Di Giulio: Our CEO is definitely the most entrepreneurial of us. But even he, like us, had to learn and grow. We all put a lot of effort into running the company because we want to do it right. In order to do our best, we have also relied on external advice, as none of us has this kind of background.

GEEG is characterised by the synergy between field experience and in-depth laboratory knowledge. What are the daily challenges your team faces in the laboratory?

Andrea Di Biase, founder and laboratory technician: Compared to all my colleagues, I have a slightly different path. I take care of the practical part of GEEG and coordinate the laboratory activities.

There is a joint effort between the field and the laboratory, but working in the laboratory is easier in some ways. We have many opportunities to try, fail and repair. We can study details and develop them better, even with tools and machines that are not available in the field.

It should also be said that the field is the litmus test, because that is where you verify the results. Seeing what we have hypothesised or developed in the lab get real feedback in the field is very useful, both to continue research and to correct course if necessary.

How do you approach potential users of your services? In addition to large companies, do you also work with SMEs or small businesses? What kind of feedback do you get?

Anita Di Giulio: The tunnel world is quite small. There are not many players. We can and must do a lot in the international context, but it seems that we are now quite well known at the national level. As a start-up, we have the advantage in the market of having this geotechnical soul - to approach the excavation from a technical point of view - but also a chemical and environmental soul to assess the impact of what is being done. These activities are usually carried out by different companies and laboratories. In this case, we stand out because our clients can manage different aspects with a single interlocutor. We started with small engagements, almost by word of mouth, which then developed into multi-year contracts that now provide us with a range of activities related to our areas of expertise.

What is your business model?

Anita Di Giulio: We work mainly for companies and design offices that build tunnels, but also for manufacturers of additives used during excavation. In these six years we have made a name for ourselves in the Italian market. What we are doing now is looking at the international context. We already have projects abroad, but they are usually commissioned by Italian companies that manage them outside the national territory. This is very positive, but it is different from having a completely foreign clientele in our portfolio. We still have a lot of work to do.

You have been doing a lot of research for years. What are the main challenges and opportunities that research can address to promote sustainability in the sector?

Irene Bavasso, founder and chemical engineer: At GEEG, research is aimed at finding concrete solutions to project and site problems, often in a very short time. But we also like to do research that comes from the study of something unexplored. We were born and live in an academic context, so we can say that the theme of research has always been an integral part of our profession, although we start from different approaches and themes due to our respective specializations in civil, chemical and environmental engineering. GEEG has given us the opportunity to bring all these different skills together in a single vision that places sustainability at the centre of our objectives. Sustainability is undoubtedly our primary mission: we seek to find solutions that are both environmentally and economically sustainable, not only to meet project requirements imposed at national level in terms of environmental impact, but above all to make our active contribution to the urgency of a greener transition in technology, design and thinking.

You recently launched TERRA TERRA - Down to Earth, an editorial project that translates GEEG's mission into scientific communication and dissemination. What added value can a start-up bring in this context?

Anita Di Giulio: The podcast is a scientific dissemination project aimed at a non-expert audience in the sector. Let's say that Federica Angelucci and Eleonora Russo - GEEG's communication managers - created this format for themselves! Joking aside, the podcast is the result of their great dedication, and they have managed to bring a fun, "pop" and professional touch to engineering topics.

We all care a lot about this project and we can do it because we are free. We do not have the over-structure of a company or a direction to which we are accountable for what we want to say, so we can share the messages we believe in. The added value that the startup can bring to this context is undoubtedly freedom of expression.

Eleonora Russo, GEEG's Communication Manager: TERRA TERRA was born from the desire to bring the underground world closer to people who do not belong to the sector. When we travel and pass through tunnels or simply take the metro to get to work, we rarely think about what happens in this "hidden" world. Along the way, we have met incredible people who are passionate about sharing their personal experiences from years spent in the field and beyond. For example, we dedicated the first edition of the podcast to Saint Barbara, known as the patron saint of firefighters, but also of tunnellers and miners, and in general of all those who carry out very dangerous work linked to hostile environments or natural disasters. We have collected wonderful stories and anecdotes about the cult of this saint.

For example, not many years ago, they told us that in tunnels, deaths were counted by the kilometer dug. So it was really dangerous and the opportunity to get close to these stories is really interesting, enriching and fascinating.

For the second series, we have planned episodes dedicated to different materials (bentonite, cement, surfactants...) and two special episodes on women in engineering. But we won't give any more spoilers!

"Terra Terra" podcast: Listen now to Terra Terra - Voices in the Tunnel: find all episodes here

Subscribe to the Terra Terra - Down to Earth newsletter to stay informed about everything underground in one place.

Scenario and Panorama - GEEG supports large engineering, technology and material production companies in design, research and analysis processes. What is the current scenario in Italy regarding this type of support and consultancy in the sector? Is it a well-trodden path or can we consider you pioneers?

Salvatore Miliziano, Founder and Scientific Director of GEEG, Associate Professor of Geotechnics at the Faculty of Engineering of the Sapienza University of Rome: The idea of GEEG was born almost ten years ago, somewhat by chance, from an interest shared by myself and Diego Sebastiani, current CEO of GEEG, who was my student at the Faculty of Civil Engineering with a geotechnical focus.

He was a great enthusiast of mechanical moles and construction sites. At the time, some underground lines were being excavated in Milan. So, thanks to some contacts, I was able to send him into the field for a while. His passion grew even more, and right after graduation we delved into the subject with a research contract with Sapienza.

As part of this contract, we both bought a machine to produce foams to condition the mechanized excavation and started experimenting. This initial phase led us to contact Giorgio Vilardi, who is now also at GEEG for the chemical part, and with whom we began to analyze the soils and rocks of the places where we were working in order to define the right excavation approach.

We then understood the importance of combining geotechnics with engineering and chemistry. That's why Giorgio also involved Prof. Luca Di Palma (founder and scientific director of GEEG, Associate Professor of Materials Technology and Applied Chemistry and Wastewater Treatment Processes at the Faculty of Engineering of Sapienza), and that's where it all started.

In 2018, GEEG was founded by myself, Diego Sebastiani, Giorgio Vilardi, Luca Di Palma, Anita Di Giulio and Andrea Di Biase, with the aim of making tunnel excavation easier, respecting the environment and reducing costs as much as possible. Today the team has grown to 16 people. In addition to the technical and research aspect, there is obviously the will and commitment to expand, to carry out scientific and communicative dissemination, with a lot of thought and heart, and this is what makes us unique in Italy.

If you are pioneers in the Italian model, are there reference models abroad, or can you also be pioneers in this context?

Salvatore Miliziano: As far as I know, there are no structures that deal with our sector in the way we do. There are realities that deal with sludge conditioning, environmental controls and so on, but as far as I know there is no similar reality. Of course, our development idea is to export our model abroad. We currently have contacts in France, for example.

One of GEEG's goals is to become an international reference point. What are the main challenges and opportunities in the European projects you are involved in, and which specific European projects have you found particularly important in order to become an international reference in the sector?

Giorgio Vilardi, founder of GEEG and RTDB at the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Chemical Plants Sector: From the point of view of internationalization, GEEG is already working with international players, not with the same number as the national portfolio. We have worked in Chile, Australia and Turkey, where our research studies have added value to major works worldwide.

As for the added value we can bring to European projects, I have to say that it has been a good journey. The first goes back to a time when GEEG didn't exist or was just about to be created. It was the EcoGrid project, which was not funded at the time, but for which we received a positive evaluation. This year we will apply again with the same partners from 2017 and 2018.

Last year we won a European Erasmus Plus project with DTU, the Technical University of Denmark, with the Department of Geotechnical Engineering.

We will be three partners: Sapienza (DICMA), DTU and GEEG as the lead. In this project we will organize a training course for laboratory technicians on the use of innovative and sustainable materials for soil consolidation in civil engineering.

The activity includes a theoretical introduction to the interpretation of laboratory and in-situ results. The course will be blended so that the first part can be followed simultaneously by participants from Denmark and Italy, and will then continue with a practical part in person. The first part of the course will take place in late 2024 and early 2025. The course is open to 10 candidates who will be selected from a call for applications that will be launched soon.

The only requirement is a secondary school diploma. In fact, the selection process involves evaluating applications from both Italy and Denmark, with particular attention to the profiles of second-generation immigrant families and those from war-torn areas. This allows for greater social and professional integration, as the course allows for the acquisition of skills that can be immediately applied. The program is not purely academic, but aims to train a technician ready for the labor market.

At the end of last year, together with Fondazione Libellula, an Italian association for gender equality and women's rights that promotes STEM disciplines, we participated in another European call for proposals, together with a Greek and a Danish partner (again DTU). We will know the outcome in a month's time and, if funded, the project will focus on the female figure in the context of civil engineering, specifically excavation, which is still a male-dominated field. Our aim is also to show, with real testimonies, that the world of excavation is open to both sexes.

Again under the leadership of GEEG, we are about to participate in a third Erasmus Plus. The Research Centres of Novi Sad in Serbia, the University of Valladolid in Spain and Sapienza (DICMA) will try to create a course for women aged 18-25 to increase the percentage of women in STEM disciplines, again with GEEG as the lead. Especially in countries like Italy, Serbia and Spain, this activity could be significant, because these are countries where the distance of women from these fields of university education is still perceived.

This is why we want to create this new course, enriched with direct testimonies from my colleagues and myself, to offer a concrete comparison of how synergies are developed and maintained in the workplace between male and female colleagues.

We are also preparing a Horizon, led by Sapienza, with 11 partners, including 3 industrial partners (including GEEG) and 8 universities, to cover almost the entire European territory. We have Italy, Spain, Serbia, Sweden, Greece, Denmark, Scotland and France. The group is quite large, but it is a huge project of about 35 million euros. It is a project that focuses on the decarbonisation of the cement production process. We will capture and convert the carbon dioxide from cement plants and then design the pilot bioconversion plant and move to the scale-up phase. The aim is to convert dioxide into fuels and sustainable materials to replace calcium carbonate used in the production of cement and mortar. This will undoubtedly have an impact on reducing the emissions associated with the sourcing of natural calcium carbonate.