Civic universities and bottom-up approaches to boost local development of rural areas: the case of the University of Macerata.

The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the main roles HEIs can play in rural areas. A longitudinal case study about the civic engagement of the University of Macerata - UNIMC (Italy) is presented, by assessing its attempt to fulfil its third and fourth mission through the application of the Quadruple Helix and 3 Model and by implementing the Civic University's dimensions. Furthermore, these aspects have been investigated through the university-business collaboration and the community-academic-collaboration frameworks.