In Bolzano, an aluminium big that was spitting metallic in the course of the final century has became a magnet for universities, corporations and start-ups. At the time, Alumix was capable of fulfill two thirds of nationwide demand. Between the sheds and chimneys, the grammar of heavy business was condensed. Then the closure, the void, the reconversion. We are within the industrial plain the place the Isarco flows into the Adige. But it’s exactly in these former manufacturing amenities that Noi Techpark, the science and expertise hub of the province of Bolzano, has discovered a house since 2017. So the place aluminium was once cast, at present prototypes are designed.
It is an infrastructural and cultural paradigm shift. The manufacturing unit adjustments pores and skin and turns into plural, reworking itself into an ecosystem. “We represent the transition from a heavy factory to a factory of ideas, where the hum of high voltage and transformers has been replaced by the creative buzz of researchers, academics and innovators. But it has remained a place made up of people and today attractive to young talent from all over the world,’ says Giuseppe Salghetti Drioli, Head of Communications at Noi Techpark. That acronym in full stands for Nature of Innovation. On eight hectares of converted industrial archaeology, there is a community that does research and applied innovation: 80 companies and 38 start-ups with more than 70 prototyping laboratories. “The most radical alternative was to strategically unite a number of sectors and expertise in the identical bodily location, bringing science and economics to work collectively. The outdated manufacturing unit had grown to a thousand staff, our neighborhood now numbers a minimum of fifteen languages from dozens of nations and a complete of two,400 extremely certified folks. We need to encourage the combination of various experiences and information as a lot as doable: bringing folks nearer collectively to convey concepts that may enhance the world,’ says Salghetti Drioli.
Parks, authorized recognition lacking
The one in Bolzano isn’t an remoted case. Science and expertise parks are advancing throughout Italy and have gotten crossroads of applied sciences and expertise. These realities produce worth, even when they continue to be invisible from a authorized perspective as a result of they aren’t but regulated. Yet science parks – over thirty in Italy – are a lever for enabling public-private innovation as a result of they convey collectively analysis, applied sciences, human capital and native and supranational requires proposals. A wide range of working fashions are rising: from personal ones comparable to Kilometro Rosso, Road-Rome Advanced District or Open Zone to these with public participation comparable to ComoNext, Noi Techpark, BioIndustry Park Fumero or Polo tecnologico di Navacchio.
Ciron (InnovUp): “Strategic supply chain nodes”
PwC Italia and InnovUp have promoted their first identikit, offered as a preview in Il Sole 24 Ore, with a geolocalised map and a survey that provides a picture of realities which are turning into strategic infrastructures. “The paradigm shift is that parks are no longer just physical places or mere containers that host companies, but strategic supply chain nodes that integrate technology transfer, open innovation and advanced services connected to universities, research centres and service providers. The aim is to generate value and a significant economic and social impact on the territory,’ says Giorgio Ciron, Director of Innovup.
How to strengthen the ecosystem?
Then there’s the fragmentation of the ecosystem, which limits visibility, coordination capability and entry to funding. In reality, parks – recommend the report’s researchers – want to enhance companies, entice funding and strengthen the innovation ecosystem. There is a necessity for an built-in mannequin to beat fragmentation. The analysis confirms the rise within the incidence of expertise switch actions on revenues. Among the primary difficulties are the involvement of corporations (63%) and coordination with public our bodies (50%), aggravated exactly by the dearth of authorized recognition.