From the Region of Tuscany 14 million for research and industrial development

Tuscany has about three thousand foreign-controlled factories in its territory, but only 49% of these oversee the upper part of the value chain, i.e. the research and development activities that are often an antidote to company relocations and closures. For this reason, the Region has decided to provide non-repayable funding - using ERDF European funds for the first time - for industrial research and experimental development of companies with foreign capital that already operate in the area or intend to set up here.

The call, which was launched two years ago with an endowment of EUR 10 million, has performed better than expected, so much so that it has just been refinanced with an additional EUR 4.2 million. The money was used to support 12 projects (with subsidies ranging from 25 to 80%) presented by the foreign groups Archa, Fucina Italia, Inovyn, Lci Italia, Jsw, Nuovo Pignone Tecnologie, Solvay, Techa, Esaote, Pr Industrial, Rustici and Microtex Composites. Each company worked in partnership with other smaller ones, also because the call for bids required large and medium-sized companies to collaborate with at least one SME.

Among the projects, presented at the Region's headquarters, are the transformation of disused fishing nets in Tuscan ports into high-performance thermoplastic composite materials; the development of self-powered ultra-low-power sensors that, thanks to machine learning algorithms, monitor track wear and tear; the development of a system for the recovery of exhausted carbons, transformed from hazardous waste into secondary raw materials; and the use of generative artificial intelligence in the management of environmental analysis laboratories to automate sample traceability. The hope is that these projects will now turn into industrial investments.

"It is with public-private collaboration that we will be able to keep industry in Tuscany," explained Regional President Eugenio Giani. "This is the first time we have used European funds for a measure directed at foreign-controlled companies," added Paolo Tedeschi, the Region's Director for Territorial Competitiveness. A 'first time' that the European Commission appreciated: 'This call for proposals demonstrates how, even with small sums, it is possible to reactivate sectors that were thought to have been lost, such as research and development, and to boost the country's industrial activity,' said Pasquale D'Alessandro of the European Commission. 'Italia is lagging far behind in terms of research and development projects, given that at European level they are worth 3% of GDP and we are at 1.5%, so we still have a lot of work to do.