The National Resilience and Recovery Plan provides 110 million funding for the development of digital technologies in the Northeast of Italy. The University of Trento will coordinate the Health, Nutrition and Lifestyles area
The agreement establishing the "Ecosistema Innovazione iNEST – Interconnected North-East Innovation Ecosystem" iNEST consortium, that will receive 110 million euro funding through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, was signed days ago at the University of Padova. The consortium aims to extend the benefits of digital technologies to the main areas of specialization of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto and the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano, and thus to create in the Northeast of Italy a widespread network capable to boost digital technologies in the industrial, manufacturing, agriculture, sea, mountain, construction, tourism, culture, health and food sectors.
The Consortium – that will last for ten years from the date of its establishment – will carry out the research programme based on a hub and a spoke model. The hub is the sole coordinator for the implementation of the programme of the innovation ecosystem, is the entity receiving the funds for the implementation of the programme, that reports to the Ministry of University and Research on the activities conducted by the spokes, the other research partners that have the equipment required to conduct the various research activities.
iNEST has been created by eleven founding members, nine universities and two research institutes: the University of Padova (proposer and founder), University of Verona, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Iuav University of Venice, University of Trento, University of Bolzano, University of Udine, University of Trieste, Sissa University of Trieste; the National Research Council and the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics. The University of Trento contributes to various research areas (spokes) but will coordinate the research activity focused on Health, Nutrition and Lifestyles, with the collaboration of Fondazione Bruno Kessler and Fondazione Hub Innovazione Trentino as affiliate members, to strengthen the involvement of Trentino in the ecosystem.
The rector of the University of Trento, Flavio Deflorian, underlines the two opportunities offered by the iNEST consortium. "First – he says – the contribution of our University to the innovation of digital technologies takes place mainly in the area of health, which is one of the central themes of the University's Strategic Plan and is crucial for our development. The other opportunity is that we will contribute to strengthening a network in the Northeast of Italy in which we are already participating through other initiatives like Smact, the competence centre for industry 4.0, which is also the natural place to develop initiatives in collaboration with enterprises".
The iNEST consortium is an important initiative for the Northeast, which consolidates the links between the territory and public and private research. The Northeast has a lot of potential and we must support this integrated approach to be able to exploit it. In the new ecosystem, integration is ensured by a sort of "digital thread" that links the activities of the various research partners (the nine spokes), and it that can also help combat fragmentation. The generous funding by the Pnrr recognizes the value of the regional dimension of the programme, demonstrating that a collaborative effort can be more effective in tackling important challenges like those we must win to implement the digital transition for economic and environmental sustainability and achieve a positive social impact at the local level, while enhancing the specialization areas of the entities involved.