THE CAPITAL OF KNOWLEDGE 
Second Congress of the European Association of Professors Emeriti

The Council of the European Association of Professors Emeriti (EAPE) has hit the road towards its second congress of The Capital of Knowledge, which will be take place in Naples on April 28-30, 2022. It will be a congress in presence aiming to walk the successful path of the Athens congress. The outline of the preliminary program in the last issue of our Bulletin, indicates that the main aim of the Congress is to protect the richness of contributions of professors emeriti and of any retired academician throughout Europe. Emeriti belong to the highest centile of the cultural enterprise of all European countries. They are ambulant libraries of their disciplines since more than ninety per cent of the knowledge that counts in their field has been developed during their academic lifespan. Their talents and creativity deserve to be protected and actively utilized. They should not be separated from the academies where they have served, they should just change their role from drivers - a role needing stronger energy-into members of the team, and not merely a minor role, in all human activities. The talent and creativity of emeriti is protected in many European countries where they can contribute to advancement of research and teaching. We are pleased that the European Union allows emeriti to have active roles in the programs they support.
The Naples congress will discuss the importance of Europe as the place of spirit and of politics rendering possible full participation of emeriti professors in mentoring and research. Mentoring is a vocation for life, and aging does not prevent scientific breakthroughs.
The problem of aging in artists and scientists is fascinating. As reported by the German poet, essayist and physician Gottfried Benn - nominated for a Nobel Prize five times - in the last four hundred years 150-200 geniuses determined the cultural progress of Western Europe. Half of them were old-old. The board members of the Bulletin have had the privilege of publishing an original contribution by Edgar Morin on complexity, one year before his hundredth birthday.
The congress of the EAPE is peculiar and is not driven by professional needs but rather by a willingness to serve the position of emeriti in the aging society, in line with the calls of UNO, WHO and the European Union for creative aging. The Capital of Knowledge moves from Athens-where the muses conferred creativity to humans-to Naples where the body of the siren Parthenope, daughter of Achelous and the muse Terpsichore, won by Odysseus' creativity, was buried. Naples and its surroundings - capturing beauty and cultural heritage - represent an additional reason to submit an abstract and to participate.

Natale G. De Santo, President of EAPE
Luigi Campanella, General Secretary of EAPE
Vincenzo Bonavita, Co-Chair of the II EAPE Congress