In 2020, a group of doctoral students decided to submit an interdisciplinary proposal for the organisation of the first doctoral conference of the newly founded United Doctoral School of the University of Verona. Despite the outbreak and long-term, socio-economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic – which put academic activities under a severe strain – the conference proposal was warmly welcomed and promoted by the School as an opportunity for dialogue that could transcend disciplinary boundaries, and as and encouragement to continue the too often underappreciated but significant work of scientific research at the margins and on the margins. It was from the concept of margins – seen as limit, as an opportunity, as a meeting place for contact and cross-fertilisation between definitions, traditional perspectives, societies, cultures – that the international conference Margins and Forgotten Places was developed. Our main imperative since the conception of this work was the application of multifaceted expressions of research innovation to socially relevant challenges of the present age. For this reason, we drew the attention of every discipline to the commitment to collective well-being, and dedicated an entire day of reflection on the 17 SDGs of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Together with outstanding keynote speakers, more than sixty speakers presented their contributions, which are still available online on our YouTube channel, and which are partially published in this…