From automatic driving to green reactors, hi-tech frontiers for the Via Emilia

There is Lamborghini's mega-project in Sant'Agata Bolognese to introduce artificial intelligence in factories and supercars, Magni's project in Modena to build the first full-electric telehandlers, Astra's plan in Piacenza to build self-driving construction trucks, and Rosetti Marino's programme in Ravenna to produce synthetic gas in green reactors starting from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. These are just some of the 11 projects - amounting to over half a billion in industrial investments - presented by ten companies, which have just been co-financed by the Emilia-Romagna Region with EUR 16 million from the seventh call for proposals under Law 14/2014.

A measure created to attract research-intensive investments and qualified profiles that has contributed over the past eight years to making the Via Emilia an increasingly attractive magnet for venture capital, as confirmed by the Financial Times analysis of a few weeks ago that crowned Bologna as Italy's most attractive destination for foreign direct investment, the third city in Europe and sixth in the world. In a region that counts 1,400 foreign settlements and is first in Italy both for innovation (Regional Innovation Index of the EU Commission) and internationalisation (with a per capita export almost double the national average).

Lr 14/14 has its merits: in eight years it has allocated 149 million euro of regional resources and created 3,900 new jobs against more than 800 million in eligible business expenses, within industrial investments estimated at least 8 billion euro. Although in recent years more than attracting foreign investors, the incentives are consolidating the presence of local companies or international groups already active in the area.

"Law 14 was created with the objective of strengthening the ecosystem by creating permanent jobs and aiming to attract research and prototyping of innovative products and processes and green investments, not to privilege foreign capital," commented Vincenzo Colla, regional councillor for economic development and employment. On an investment of more than 400 million euro, such as that of Lamborghini, it is not the 2.5 million euro regional contribution that makes the difference, "but it is the recognition between public and private entities that counts, and it is on this relational strength that the reliability and attractiveness of an area is built. Emilia-Romagna is in turn becoming a great brand, a source of reputational reinforcement for those who settle there,' Colla emphasises.

And it draws attention to two non-core projects for the traditional districts of Via Emilia on which the Region is betting: the enabling software platform of Crif, the Bologna-based multinational business & credit information company, which with the Aurora project and over 7 million in investment in artificial intelligence aims to change the paradigm of digital services, unpacking data into modules that can be reconfigured by customers to their own specifications; and the experimentation of the Turin-based Newcleo on steels and alloys capable of withstanding the corrosion of molten lead to make the prototype nuclear reactor under construction at Brasimone work (without fuel), an initial investment of 60 million, another 7 million with this project, and a valuable induced effect of revitalising the Apennines of Emilia.