San Siro is a large public housing neighbourhood with a high cultural richness (50% inhabitants are of foreign origin), but also presents great social fragilities: elderly people often lonely, people with psychiatric pathologies, widespread poverty and unemployment. The housing stock is largely degraded but there are several public and collective spaces with a remarkable potential. A number of active and diversified local associations and other entities are committed to improving living conditions in San Siro.

Off Campus San Siro is a multidisciplinary observatory on topics such as inequalities, access to the city and social marginalisation processes, which questions the role of the university and the co-production of knowledge as tools for social change. Various research issues are tackled by a series of currently active projects. Among these: living conditions in marginal contexts; capacities and skills development by social groups/networks as a tool to enable and mobilise local resources; fight against educational poverty (including digital), and access to rights and services; social support and training for new generations.

Over time, the collaboration with other universities in Milano has been strengthened: Bocconi University, the University of Milano-Bicocca and the University of Milano. Off Campus San Siro hosts the Legal and Legal Education Desk, managed by the Bocconi University; and the Talent Hub, managed by the University of Milano.