Science parks, innovation needs funds and networks

In Bolzano, an aluminium giant that was spitting metal in the middle of the last century has turned into a magnet for universities, companies and start-ups. At the time, Alumix was able to satisfy two thirds of national demand. Between the sheds and chimneys, the grammar of heavy industry was condensed. Then the closure, the void, the reconversion. We are in the industrial plain where the Isarco flows into the Adige. But it is precisely in these former production facilities that Noi Techpark, the science and technology hub of the province of Bolzano, has found a home since 2017. So where aluminium used to be forged, today prototypes are designed.

It is an infrastructural and cultural paradigm shift. The factory changes skin and becomes plural, transforming 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represent the transition from a heavy factory to a factory of ideas, where the hum of high voltage and transformers has been replaced by the creative buzz of researchers, academics and innovators.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 choice was to strategically unite several sectors and skills in the same physical location, bringing science and economics to work together. The old factory had grown to a thousand workers, our community now numbers at least fifteen languages from dozens of countries and a total of 2,400 highly qualified people. We want to encourage the integration of different experiences and knowledge as much as possible: bringing people closer together to bring ideas that can improve the world,' says Salghetti Drioli.

The one in Bolzano is not an isolated case. Science and technology parks are advancing all over Italy and are becoming crossroads of technologies and skills. These realities produce value, even if they remain invisible from a legal point of view because they are not yet regulated. Yet science parks - over thirty in Italy - are a lever for enabling public-private innovation because they bring together research, technologies, human capital and local and supranational calls for proposals. A variety of operating models are emerging: from private ones such as Kilometro Rosso, Road-Rome Advanced District or Open Zone to those with public participation such as ComoNext, Noi Techpark, BioIndustry Park Fumero or Polo tecnologico di Navacchio.

PwC Italia and InnovUp have promoted their first identikit, presented as a preview in Il Sole 24 Ore, with a geolocalised map and a survey that gives an image of realities that are becoming 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.

Then there is the fragmentation of the ecosystem, which limits visibility, coordination capacity and access to funding. In fact, parks - suggest the report's researchers - need to improve services, attract funding and strengthen the innovation ecosystem. There is a need for an integrated model to overcome fragmentation. The research confirms the increase in the incidence of technology transfer activities on revenues. Among the main difficulties are the involvement of companies (63%) and coordination with public bodies (50%), aggravated precisely by the lack of legal recognition.