New members and two national competence centers in the R&I Foundation (Research and Entrepreneurship)

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New entries in the R&I Foundation (Research and Entrepreneurship) in which 11 companies enter as ordinary members: Ansaldo Green Tech (international green energy company), Neuromed (medical and scientific research institute of reference in the South) and Ctn Smart Communities Tech (national technological cluster for market chains), as well as Digimat (applications and services in the downstream of the Space Economy), Fondazione Gran Sasso Tech (technological frontier in the upstream of the Space Economy), Meta (the longest-lived broad spectrum accelerator of Italy and Europe) CerICT (inter-university technological laboratory in Campania) Fondazione Piemonte Innova (an Italian technological district of excellence) and Pts Clas (consulting & research on innovation). The Foundation’s network is also expanded with the entry of two national competence centers selected by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy: Artes 4.0, a competence center with a particular projection towards Central and Southern Italy, and MedITech 4.0, a multi-regional center which brings together the main universities of Puglia and Campania and 21 industrial players.
“The Research & Entrepreneurship Foundation continues its path of aggregation of financial, industrial, technological and academic subjects, to seize all the opportunities opened up by public policies for innovation, to be achieved with national and European resources – underlines Gregorio De Felice, Prime Minister Supervisory Board of the Foundation and Chief Economist of Intesa Sanpaolo -. As has long been intuitioned, the South takes on a central role for the Foundation, strongly committed to bringing together supply and demand for innovation».

Different worlds with a single goal: innovation as a factor for sustainable growth. Founded in 2012 to network startups, the financial world and large industrial groups, the R&I Foundation, by investing in the human and intellectual capital of the best universities, firmly believes that working with the South means enhancing its skills not only in the economic recovery of the country, but also for global markets. Its founding members include Engineering, Ferrovie dello Stato, the Milan Polytechnic Foundation, Intesa Sanpaolo, Iren, the Italian Institute of Technology, Leonardo, the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and the Campus Bio-Medico University. The following universities are also ordinary members and collaborate with the Foundation: Federico II, Vanvitelli, Parthenope, Sannio, Salerno, PoliBa, Bari.

«The new perimeter of the Research & Entrepreneurship Foundation is enriched with vital and distinctive experiences to strengthen its mission indicated in the “Development in the South” Strategic Plan and intervene already upstream in the technology transfer chain to operate in close synergy with university and research institutions – remarked the managing director Antonio Perfetti -. We want to encourage the development of high-tech industrial chains by distinguishing ourselves in the development projects of the South”. The Foundation operates as a single entity that is characterized by the ability to create a system in compliance with the operational and organizational peculiarities of the individual components, bringing together those involved in promoting and supporting innovative actions in the field of technology transfer and Open Innovation, for sustainable development and lasting.
Accelerating technology transfer processes allows for the creation of innovation by stimulating the growth of the entrepreneurial system, for responding efficiently and specifically to the demand for innovation required and for exploiting the new significant market entry opportunities of young technology-driven start-up companies, Innovative spin-offs and SMEs, more responsive to the needs expressed by the market itself.