SIOS24 Summer | Massimo Carnelos (Farnesina): «From day zero the startup must have foreign countries in its DNA»

«When I worked in London I remember constant events and occasions where we met. Events like SIOS24 Summer are by definition useful: innovation feeds on contamination. Young people must meet the funds, the corporates must be there. Even if you operate in sectors that are sidereal distant, you have to see each other. New ideas can arise from these situations.” Massimo CarnelosHead of the Technological Innovation and Startup Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, will be among the speakers who will take the stage at SIOS24 Summer on June 20th in Rome, in the spaces of the Gazometro in via Ostiense (here is the agenda). In this interview we asked him, in light of his international experience, how politics and institutions are dealing with the growth of the ecosystem.

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Massimo Carnelos: a global strategy

When we talk about startups, the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy or the Ministry of Economy usually come to mind as reference departments. The matter, in reality, is transversal as he explained to us Massimo Carnelos. «At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we develop the strategy for the growth of Italian innovation: we promote the affirmation of our technologies on international markets».

It is a work of presence and continuous relationships with various hubs around the world, to show the skills that the country has developed. «This also means growing our operators, opening up opportunities for partnerships and collaboration with states that are more advanced than us, and gaining market shares. Always promoting Italy as a place where there are objective comparative advantages in innovating.”

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Between 2018 and the end of 2022 Massimo Carnelos he held the role of Head of the Economic Office of the Italian Embassy in London and was a member of the Governing Council of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Since joining diplomacy in 2021 he has worked at the Middle East Desk and in the Office for International Scientific and Technological Cooperation. He was Deputy Ambassador to New Zealand, Cyprus and Iraq.

Why is it worth innovating in Italy?

From abroad he returned to Italy to offer the best talents globally. There was talk of objective advantages with respect to the process innovation in Italy. What would they be? «I would start from the strong qualities and skills of operators and researchers. We have excellent basic research, both in universities and in public research centers. We excel globally in terms of number of papers and citations, in the most advanced technological sectors, from biotech to AI.”

Massimo Carnelos then mentioned another aspect of competitiveness. «There is a lower labor cost than in other parts of the world. A life science researcher from the United States can cost up to 50% more than his Italian colleague. But sometimes the skills gap doesn’t even exist.” On the other hand, the limits still persist, especially in the leverage of tech transfer.

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«We face the difficulty compared to other ecosystems in transforming this basic research into applied research and from there into companies and economic value – he explained to us Massimo Carnelos -. It is a delay that, in reality, distinguishes all of Europe compared to the USA. There is a prospect of non-trivial improvement: the government abolished the professor’s privilege in 2023, so it is the university that can enhance the commercialization of research.”

In view of SIOS24 Summer we asked Massimo Carnelos what the focus of his work is Farnesina. «I deal with advanced emerging technologies, such as quantum and biotech. On the latter we have a working table on internationalization created by Minister Antonio Tajani to provide strategic directions to policy makers. We always deal with these solutions from an economic and commercial perspective.” Then there is the whole front startups. «These are companies that enter high-risk sectors». Which leads to a high rate of mortalitybut also many opportunities to develop products to launch on global markets.

We start from the world

«I always say to founders: you have to start with the world. The startup cannot reduce its ambitions. Abroad should be in the DNA of a company from day zero.” There still remain defects related to some sort of provincialism and the tendency to dwarfism industrial, characteristic of many companies in our country. In the years a London Massimo Carnelos had the opportunity to understand what an ecosystem needs to function.

«In the United Kingdom there is the triangle London, Cambridge and Oxford. There is a high density of universities and experts, as well as a wide possibility of finance and venture capital. The institutions have ensured that favorable conditions have been created, with industrial, fiscal and financing policies that favor growth.”

What is missing from Italian Venture Capital?

In recent days, the startup sector has welcomed the words of the Governor of the Bank of Italy with optimism Fabio Panetta, who hoped for greater activism on the part of institutional funds – pension funds and insurance companies – in the world of venture capital. «With Paris the gap is abysmal even in the presence of roughly similar GDPs. The Italian government did well in its time to create the conditions for the creation of CDP Venture Capital as an operator. But there is no justification for our institutional investors putting little or nothing into our VC managers. Sometimes they prefer to invest in foreign ventures.”

The lack of propensity to risk, but also a lack of background knowledge on the wealth of products and technologies that has been emerging from the ecosystem for over ten years. «As a country we have only recently entered the venture world, there have not yet been those important exits that would make the institutions more interested. The solution we have proposed is a form of SACE guarantee that covers part of the investment.”