The tender launched in recent months by the Polytechnic of Turin through which partners and suppliers should have been identified for the ISm4Italy project – Innovation infrastructure for sustainable mobility in Italy, co-financed with PNRR resources, was unsuccessful.
This is one of the 4 initiatives for Technological Innovation Infrastructures (research centres, often constituted as nodes or networks even physically located in different places, which being interconnected create an overall infrastructure that amplifies their impact in terms of production of cutting-edge research and new technologies, knowledge and technological transfer) proposed by the Polytechnic of Turin, which obtained a total of 145,596,192 euros, representing 49% of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan with regards to Mission 4 (Education and Research), in its component dedicated to accompanying technologies in the transition from research to business, and 51% on funds coming from a public-private partnership to be established.
Specifically, the objective of ISm4Italy – to which 6 public entities and 16 private companies had previously expressed their interest in joining – is to strengthen the industrial sectors of intelligent, electric and autonomous mobility in the land sector (automotive and railways) and aerospace, also focusing on hydrogen to reduce environmental impact.
For the development of this project, which has a total budget of approximately 40 million euros and should directly involve various Italian regions (Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Campania, Puglia), the Polytechnic of Turin had launched a divided tender in 12 lots, some of which related to hydrogen.
In particular, lot 1, called ‘H2 Powertrain’, concerned the “conversion of an existing test bench for hydrogen internal combustion engines, for testing activities on fuel cells and internal combustion engines powered by hydrogen and in general and -fuel”, with a value of 3.67 million euros.
Lot 2, however, was called ‘Production of green H2 for engine and vehicle test’ and was related to the “production of 100% green hydrogen through production, storage and exploitation of hydrogen from a photovoltaic system connected to a centralized electrolyser”, and was worth 2.21 million.
But, as can be seen from the announcement published in the European Official Journal, for these lots, as for the other 10 that made up the tender, no offers were received by the Polytechnic of Turin.
