Grameen Italia Foundation was born in 2010 thanks to a cooperation between the University of Bologna, the Unicredit Foundation and the Grameen Trust.
In the same year, Grameen Italia obtained the recognition of the Supervisory Authority and it started its strategic evaluation activity under the conduct of the vice president Luisa Brunori, psychology and professor at the University of Bologna.
The creation of the Foundation as a center specialized in the Grameen methodology is another of the numerous of initiatives started from 2006, within the Psychology Department of the University of Bologna; among the others: the Strategic University Project M.I.C.R.O. that has involved academics and practitioners in a deep interdisciplinary consideration on the identity of Microcredit and the International Observatory on Microfinance (M.I.O.), center of international excellence originated in 2007 for the research and the analysis of the Microcredit phenomenon in the world.
From 2010 to 2016 the Foundation has mainly conduced studying and research activities, realized international conferences, raising projects and training courses on the topics of microcredit and social business involving the students from high schools of the Emilia Romagna Region.
The Foundation has published a collection of articles and monographs on the topics of microcredit and social business, among which: “Faremicrocredito.it” (Brunori, L., Giovannetti, E., & Guerzoni, G. (Eds.)(2014). Faremicrocredito.it Developing the potential of microcredit in Italy through social business: Developing the potential of microcredit in Italy through social business. FrancoAngeli, Milano.) and “Practical Guide to Microcredit in Emilia Romagna”.