Brescia. The results of the working groups organized in recent months to define the plans for the Brescia’s Citadel of Sustainable Innovation, or “Innovation District”.
The meeting was attended by, among others, Andrea Poli (councillor of the Municipality of Brescia with responsibility for Productive Activities, Tourism, Social and Economic Innovation and the Digital Transition), Roberto Saccone (president of the Brescia Chamber of Commerce), Daniele Peli (CSMT president), Giancarlo Turati (InnexHUB president), Francesco Baruffi (investment manager) Riccardo Trichilo (CSMT CEO), Francesco Castelli (Rector of the University of Brescia) and Franco Gussalli Beretta (Confindustria Brescia president).
They were involved in the work to define the design of the Citadel – over the course of 6 months – around 250 professionals including entrepreneurs, managers, teachers and representatives of bodies and institutions; the 12 tables covered the following topics: Economic model – Laboratories – International Relations – Agriculture and Food Processing – Digital Education and Training – Commerce and Tourism – Culture, Art and Society – Crafts and Business Contamination – Circular Economy and Ecological Transition – Urban Planning and Regeneration – Manufacturing – Digitalisation, Startups and Links between innovative ideas and Territory. The synthesis of what emerged was then entrusted to Francesco Baruffi, an investment manager specialized in technology transfer.
The Innovation District is configured as a widespread place, with a main office in which will be joined by other existing spaces dedicated to innovation and others that may be created. In the coming weeks, talks will begin with the representatives of the tables, which will lead to the drafting of the industrial plan, the return of which is expected in October.
There are two, in particular, the pillars identified by Baruffi on which to build the design platforms: these are circularity and environmental sustainability, focused on the use of new materials (among which the theme of making cars lighter stands out) and deep technology (in particular on the processing and collection of data).
The legal vehicle and its governance are also being defined, in particular the type of foundation that will design the policies and strategies for involving stakeholders; CSMT will have the role of managing body, in continuity with the current mission of the company.
Among the projects that could be linked to the Innovation District, the Smart Safety Lab of the University of Brescia stands out, presented during the proceedings by the Rector Francesco Castelli: the initiative, the only one of its kind in Italy, aims to create the first integrated risk simulation laboratory to test and validate technologies for mitigating the risk of fatal accidents at work.
Alongside the Innovation District, some important national and international innovation players are already present – including Comau, Siemens, Lenovo, Made, CIM4.0 of Turin – who spoke during the presentation to give their testimony.
«Such a convergence of actors on a single project has never happened in Brescia – he comments Andrea Poli, councilor of the Municipality of Brescia with responsibility for Productive Activities, Tourism, Social and Economic Innovation and Digital Transition –. The Innovation District is a project that is based on an urban regeneration perspective: as a Municipality, we have the task of finding the part of the city that acts as an ideal container for its development”.
«The Chamber of Commerce shares and supports the project because it corresponds to the needs of businesses, especially SMEs at a time when innovation is the main driver of competitiveness but innovating requires knowledge, relationships and competence that are not always possessed internally – he adds Roberto Saccone, president of the Brescia Chamber of Commerce –, and because it corresponds to the idea of the city that the Administration is putting in place. A city that stands out among other things for the attractive capacity that derives from engaging and transversal material and immaterial infrastructural projects. Camera therefore carries out, at this moment, an aggregation and coordination function to define an industrial plan complete with a work plan and intermediate objectives capable of guaranteeing the success of the initiative. Having confirmed the availability of the Municipality to identify the location that will host the project, the hypothesis that the Citadel of innovation is a real estate operation is definitively excluded”.
«The CSMT has promoted the project from the beginning and firmly believes in its importance for the territory – he reflects Daniele Peli, president of the CSMT –. With a solid 18-year experience in the field of research and technology transfer, CSMT represents a solid foundation from which to build the Citadel of Sustainable Innovation.”
«The Innovation District project is anything but at a standstill – the words of Giancarlo Turati, president of InnexHUB –: the ideas and proposals collected in recent months alone constitute a notable reservoir for defining the innovative future of our territory. Precisely for this reason, we wanted to gather the stimuli of so many different actors, in the awareness that we are faced with a reality that looks to the next 20/30 years, and not just the immediate future.”
«We live in an area with incredible values: we are very strong in the industrial sector but also leaders in the primary sector and in tourism – he closes Franco Gussalli Beretta, president of Confindustria Brescia –. What other territory can have an economic strength of this level? The time is no longer for us to commit ourselves alone, because it is no longer enough: to overcome the challenges of the digital and ecological transition we must do, starting from a great strength: that of having in Brescia realities such as the CSMT and the universities, which we must continue to strengthen. The Innovation District is going precisely in this direction, and the presence in the room of numerous high-level testimonials demonstrates the evident willingness of the industrial giants, given the importance of the industrial fabric of Brescia, to be increasingly present in the future too, if there is one a project of this kind, supporting companies in future challenges to increasingly improve productivity and therefore competitiveness”.
