Innovation services

Italy is set to host the third edition of the Big Science Business Forum (BSBF2024) in the city of Trieste from October 1 to 4, 2024, at the Generali Convention Center in Porto Vecchio. Among the numerous scheduled initiatives, a packed program of meetings will culminate nearly two years of intense promotional activities between Italy and Europe. There will be over 150 stands representing institutional participants and companies from across Europe in the exhibition space. These significant numbers aim to surpass the success of previous editions in Copenhagen and Granada, which brought together about 1,000 delegates from 500 organizations and 30 countries to discuss the future of the Big Science market. BSBF2024 is organized by ten leading European Big Science Organizations (BSOs): CERN, ESA, ESO, ESS, ESRF, European XFEL, FAIR, F4E, ILL, and SKAO, with the support of PERIIA, the pan-European network of national Industry Liaison Officers (ILOs). The bid to host BSBF2024 in Trieste was supported by the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in collaboration with ILO Network Italy, composed of representatives from CNR, ENEA, INAF, and INFN, as well as Area Science Park in Trieste and PromoTurismo FVG. Therefore, the Big Science Business Forum 2024 will be a business-focused event, bringing together Europe’s leading research infrastructures and international companies in high-tech and innovation sectors. The aim is to expand future prospects for creating a European Big Science market, including technological developments, economic investments, and facilitating entrepreneurial opportunities across the continent. To achieve this, BSBF2024 has launched a series of calls for proposals over the past months, published on its official website. These calls are the main tool for enabling European companies to connect and participate in the European Big Science market. This initiative has facilitated the involvement of new SMEs (26 selected from 14 different countries, including 2 from Italy) and the selection of other scientific organizations affiliated with BSBF (9 from 5 different countries, including 3 from Italy). Some calls are still open, such as the Technology Transfer Track Call (TTT Call, deadline June 30), which will highlight technology transfer experiences and proposals within the Big Science sector. Another call aims to select companies that have already had multiple contracts with various BSOs to outline proposals for building a common European market for Big Science, the so-called Big Science Common Market call (BSCM call, deadline June 18). BSBF2024 in Trieste this October represents a unique opportunity for live interaction among European companies and organizations to participate in a market valued at nearly €10 billion annually. These funds are managed through international public tenders directly by the BSOs according to specific rules and procedures, which participants will have the opportunity to explore in-depth during the four-day event. Following the handover to the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region at the previous edition in Granada, BSBF TRIESTE 2024 was officially presented in Rome on February 1, 2023, by Governor Massimiliano Fedriga, with regional councillors Alessia Rosolen and Sergio Emidio Bini. Alongside them, as speakers, were Minister for University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, Minister for Enterprises and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, Minister for Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Maria Tripodi, and the presidents of the National Research Council, Maria Chiara Carrozza, the National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Antonio Zoccoli, the National Institute for Astrophysics Marco Tavani, and Area Science Park Caterina Petrillo. Director of BSBF 2024 initiatives is Paolo Acunzo (ILO Network Italy, ENEA), in collaboration with Ketty Segatti, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Research of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region. The Big Science Business Forum has conducted a real roadshow across Europe in recent months, in collaboration with the Central European Initiative (InCE), with institutional meetings in Belgrade (February 27, 2024), Bratislava (March 20, 2024), Prague (March 21, 2024), Warsaw (April 16, 2024), Budapest (May 7, 2024), Zagreb (June 13, 2024), and Ljubljana (June 14, 2024), in the presence of Italian ambassadors and numerous stakeholders. BSBF presentations have also been held in scientific, institutional, and entrepreneurial contexts throughout Italy and Friuli Venezia Giulia, including IOD’23 – Industrial Opportunity Days in Naples (June 2023), Trieste Next (September 2023), Barcolana Sea Summit (October 2023), Confindustria Alto Adriatico (November 2023), and Confindustria Udine (January 2024). Additional presentations took place at the University of Tuscia (January 2024), IUPAP Industry & Education Projects in Trieste (March 2024), and at the Italian-Belgian Chamber of Commerce in Brussels (April 11, 2024). The forum has also participated in international conferences such as EPS Forum in Berlin (March 26, 2024) and Deep Tech Atelier in Riga (May 17, 2024). Throughout 2023 and the first half of 2024, the BSBF2024 organizing team has provided hundreds of European entrepreneurs the opportunity to visit the major European Big Science Organizations, including Fusion for Energy (F4E) at ITER Organization (Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France, October 2023), European XFEL (Schenefeld, Germany, January 2024), CERN (Geneva, Switzerland, February 2024), and ESA (Noordwijk, Netherlands, March 15, 2024). Online webinars are available, such as “Women in Big Science Projects”, focusing on female presence in Big Science. Registration for BSBF2024 is open on the official website, where more information is available: www.bsbf2024.org.  

Our ability to respond to future pandemics depends on a constant commitment to developing innovative and effective response strategies. This is the objective of the International Scientific Conference “Pandemic preparedness: Achievements, current challenges, and new frontiers” scheduled from 11 to 13 November 2024 at the Hotel Savoia Excelsior Palace in Trieste. The Conference is organised by the Area Science Park National Research Institute in conjunction with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology – ICGEB, as part of the PRP@CERIC project, financed by PNRR Next Generation EU funds, dedicated to Research Infrastructures. The Conference will involve internationally renowned scientists to provide an overview of known and emerging viruses and their potential epidemic risk. It will also foster knowledge sharing and networking, encouraging the development of broad synergies and multidisciplinary cooperation. During the scientific event, diagnostics, epidemiology, monitoring, drug discovery, and preventive approaches will be discussed in the context of international cooperation to jointly address the challenges of (re)emerging infectious diseases. Speakers will include international experts in various disciplines applied to the study of pathogens, such as Artificial Intelligence, virology, structural biology, genomics, data management, clinical diagnostics, infectious diseases, and zoonoses. The Conference has a rich programme encompassing theme-related plenary sessions, oral presentations, and poster sessions. It is aimed at experienced researchers, university professors, doctors, healthcare personnel, and young researchers taking their first steps in pathogen research at various levels. To register for the Conference, early-bird registration is possible until August 31 and regular registration until October 31 via the project website. To participate as a speaker, you must send an abstract for an oral or poster presentation by June 15, 2024, using the same channel. Here the Conference brochure

The 20th CERIC-ERIC Call for Proposals, that will allow coordinated access to more than 60 instruments and support laboratories, is now open. As usual, in addition to the possibility to access several instruments and laboratories through a single application, CERIC-ERIC offers support for mobility. To apply, use the link “Submit a new CERIC proposal” in the VUO (https://vuo.elettra.trieste.it/) As usual, for the 20th call (the first of 2024) there will be two deadlines: March 4th 2024, at 17:00 CET, to have a pre-evaluation and the possibility to improve your proposal; April 2nd 2024, at 17:00 CEST (final submission), recommended only for users that are experts in all the techniques requested. What is new in this call? Over the last years CERIC has been increasing its capacities in the field of Energy Materials. To this end, three energy storage facilities with state-of-the-art techniques in the field of fuel cells and batteries research, have been recently included in CERIC open access offer: – European Commissions’s Joint Research Centre for Battery Energy Storage Testing Laboratory and the Fuel Cell and Electrolyser Testing laboratory in Petter, The Netherlands – Hydrogen Technology Centre (HTC) at Charles University in Prague Additional instruments available – AMS-IRMS Accelerator Mass Spectrometry for radiocarbon dating at the CEDAD laboratory of the University of Salento – Next Generation Sequencing at the Laboratory for Genomics and Epigenomics (LAGE) in Trieste CERIC continues to offer access to: – Holographic Electron Microscopy (HoloTem) at University of Salento in Lecce, Italy – Mass Spectrometry Laboratory (MSI) at University of Salerno, Italy For further information about the call, please visit the website: https://www.ceric-eric.eu/users/call-for-proposals/

The opening of the IMPRESS Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) Call for Tenders marks a significant milestone in advancing the frontiers of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The IMPRESS PCP process presents an extraordinary opportunity for innovative companies to collaborate in crafting a cutting-edge interoperable platform for TEM. The IMPRESS project, funded by the European Union, envisions a paradigm shift in TEM through the introduction of an innovative interoperable platform. This platform, characterized by standardized hardware and software interfaces and multifunctional components, aims to transcend current limitations in TEM. Based on a modular cartridge concept and open designs, it will create solutions that can be transferred interchangeably along the microscope column, between microscopes and across instruments. Bid Submission Technology providers keen on participating in the IMPRESS PCP Call for Tenders must register their companies on Subreport, accessible via the following link. Once registered, access to the Subreport platform allows for bid submission, document downloads, notifications and more via the following link. Key deadlines to note for bid submission: 30th January 2024 (13:00 hrs CET): Deadline to make comments on the IPR clauses 1st March 2024 (13:00 hrs CET): Deadline to submit questions 29th March 2024 (13:00 hrs CET): Bid submission deadline The contact address for any questions related to the content of the IMPRESS-PCP Call for Tenders is: impress-pcp@fz-juelich.de. In addition, Subreport has a helpdesk in case of questions or problems related to the use of the Subreport platform (oliver.mueller@subreport.de; oliver.schulze@subreport.de). For clarifications or queries regarding the PCP procedure, a comprehensive Q&A list addressing technical matters, open innovation and PCP issues is available on the IMPRESS website, here. To foster collaboration among companies and facilitate meeting the tender criteria, a Matchmaking Tool is available on the IMPRESS website, here. This tool enables interested parties to form partnerships, facilitating exchanges of expertise, skills and resources among potential partners whose needs align. Further details about the IMPRESS-PCP Call for Tenders and bid submission guidelines are provided at this link.   IMPRESS PCP: The Way Forward “The IMPRESS PCP Call for Tenders invites all interested parties to present their bids to develop an innovative interoperable platform based on correlative, adaptable and transferable cartridges with a standardized interface”, points out Regina Ciancio, the IMPRESS Project Coordinator. Once the PCP Call for Tenders concludes, selected companies with a diverse set of scientific and technological expertise will engage in a competitive three-phase development journey to develop the interoperable platform. The initial phase involves designing innovative solutions and verifying their technical and economic feasibility. The most promising prototypes will undergo development and testing at the lead procurer’s facilities during the second phase. The final phase will witness testing and validation of the chosen prototypes in operational environments. “The interoperable platform could be implemented on different transmission electron microscopes from different microscope manufacturers, other analytical instruments, and could be adapted by individual users to meet their unmet scientific needs to obtain innovative solutions”, says Rafal Dunin-Borkowski, the IMPRESS Project Scientific Coordinator. Collaborative endeavors between companies, scientists and end-users will culminate in establishing the IMPRESS innovation ecosystem. This Research & Innovation journey presents an exciting opportunity for companies to expand the horizons of TEM, unlocking business prospects and easing access to new sectors and markets. About IMPRESS IMPRESS (Interoperable electron Microscopy Platform for advanced RESearch and Services) is a cutting-edge Horizon Europe Research & Innovation project aimed at transforming the field of transmission electron microscopy. Bringing together 19 partners from 11 European countries, the project will develop a new generation of instrumentation that is flexible and adaptable. Based on open standards, interfaces, data formats and interchangeable components, the platform will allow for customized, interoperable arrangements. For more information about the IMPRESS project, visit the IMPRESS website and follow the project on LinkedIn.   IMPRESS-PCP LIST OF PROCURERS Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZ Jülich), Germany (Lead Procurer) Area di Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica di Trieste (AREA), Italy Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) ERIC, Czech Republic Fundacio Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), Spain Leibniz Institut für Festkörper und Werkstoffforschung Dresden EV (IFW), Germany Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerp), Belgium

The selected enterprises work on everything from mixed reality to simplify work during space walks, through to mouldable solid-state supercapacitors for high-performance electric vehicles, as well as the space “sunflower” that will enable orbiting structures to accumulate more energy with solar panels. Eleven Italian startups have been selected to participate on 4 December at the World Trade Centre in Seattle, in the US, in the Primo.Innovare. summit, an internationalisation programme created by Area Science Park and Serena–private operating foundation, giving Italian startups the opportunity to engage with some of the most important players in the US market. After the first edition in Seattle in 2022, and the following events in New York and Boston in 2023, this new event takes place in the state of Washington. The goal is to introduce 11 young, innovative Italian enterprises active in the sectors of artificial intelligence and aerospace to one of the most vibrant areas for these sectors in the US and in the world. The programme The event on 4 December will begin with a visit to the Boeing factory in Renton, in the metropolitan area of Seattle. The startups will be taken to the manufacturing heart of the aircraft giant, discussing their innovative solutions. In the afternoon, the main part of the event will take place at Seattle’s World Trade Centre. The summit will be introduced by the Deputy Consul General of Italy in San Francisco, Davide Corriero, before handing over to the startups, which will present to an audience of around one hundred investors and big companies from the area, including members of the Greater Seattle Partners, which numbers 900 local businesses in the aerospace sector alone (including the aforementioned Boeing and Blue Origin). Some of the most important will take part in the round-table session to be held during the event, with executives from Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon (Project Kuiper) and Google (NASA Project), as well as Umbra Group, an Italian industrial enterprise that is already a supplier of Boeing with operations in the state of Washington. The event will also see the participation of Eviation Aircraft – manufacturer of the first twin-engine electric plane, Alice – and analyst AIR-Aerospace Intelligence. Primo. Innovare. goes beyond the physical event. The pitches made by startups will be uploaded and remain available in the virtual expo created on the website primoinnovare.org, providing a further opportunity to cultivate business remotely over the coming months. Organisation The varied delegation of Italian startups was selected by the national research institution Area Science Park, which organised the event together with Serena. “With Primo. Innovare. we are creating an exclusive networking opportunity for innovative startups from various regions of Italy, offering them a unique platform to present their businesses to investors, venture-capital funds and leaders of some of the biggest US companies. Once again, innovation is a bridge between Italy and the US, common ground on which to strengthen relations between our countries and build new relationships”, stated Fabrizio Rovatti, technological director at Area Science Park.  “Historically, Italy has always been at the forefront of the aviation industry. Primo. Innovare. now introduces a delegation of new entrepreneurs to Seattle, with their innovative enterprises demonstrating recent advances in the aerospace sector. This acceleration is made even more exciting by the development of artificial intelligence systems, included as another central theme of this year’s summit. Following the excellent results of the 2022 edition, we continue to focus on synergies between Italy and the Pacific Northwest of the US, an area boasting 900 companies working in the sector offering employment to over 99,000 people in the Seattle area alone”, declared Davide Viganò cofounder and President of Serena Corp, a non-profit foundation focused on promoting all that is beautiful about Italy and its entrepreneurial culture, and, above all, generating value, collaborations and opportunities for innovation between Italy and the Pacific Northwest. The project is also supported by Innovit, the Italian Innovation and Culture Hub in San Francisco, a physical space combining activity fostering technological, scientific and innovative Italian ecosystems – through its Innovation Centre – with that of the Italian Institute of Culture, opened in 2022. The Centre has enhanced the range of innovation solutions offered by Primo. Innovare. bringing innovative enterprises to Seattle that participated in the Call4Innovit-Space Economy acceleration initiative in 2023. The selected startups Arca Dynamics | www.arcadynamics.space | Rome B4 Group | www.b4-group.it | Milan Blacks | www.blacks-composites.it | Ravenna Delta Space Leonis | www.deltaspaceleonis.com | Rome Geckoway | www.geckoway.com | Rome Involve Space | www.involvespace.it | Como Miprons | www.miprons.com | Rome Nano-Tech | www.italnanotech.com | Ascoli Piceno Nabu | www.nabu.ag | Turin Novac | www.novacsupercap.com | Modena Revolv Space | www.revolvspace.com | Turin

Area Science Park has joined the network of ELIXIR, an intergovernmental organisation pooling life-sciences resources from across Europe. This includes databases, software tools, training materials, cloud storage and supercomputers. ELIXIR’s aim is to coordinate these resources to form a unified infrastructure. ELIXIR makes it easier for scientists to find and share data, exchange expertise and agree on best practices, helping them to acquire knowledge on how living organisms function. Through the Technological Innovation Research Institute Area Science Park manages cutting-edge research infrastructure and performs pioneering research in the fields of life sciences, materials science and data science, with the use of its three pioneering laboratories: Genomics and Epigenomics Laboratory (LAGE), Electron Microscopy Laboratory (LAME) and Data Engineering Laboratory (LADE). The Italian Hub of ELIXIR, coordinated by the Italian National Research Council, currently includes 28 partners, including research institutes, universities and technology institutions. ELIXIR-IT aims to unite all Italian researchers in the field of bioinformatics, promoting sharing and development of expertise, integrating the various Italian bioinformatics resources recognised at international level and contributing to their integration into European infrastructure. The Technological Innovation Research Institute hosts and coordinates various laboratories dedicated to life sciences, including through the PRP@CERIC project, and the services of ORFEO, a datacentre optimised to handle computational biology workflows. Specifically, the ELIXIR-IT platform will see integration of DPCfam, a machine-learning method for automatically identifying protein families from large datasets, developed and managed by the Data Engineering Laboratory.

An automated, zero-emissions chemical reactor that will enable digitalisation of chemical processes, transforming them into files. This is the innovative technology from Katakem, a startup from Catanzaro, in Southern Italy, which won first place in Startup Marathon 2023. The contest run by Area Science Park, UniCredit and Fondazione Comunica ended on Tuesday 14 November, with an event hosted at the UniCredit offices in Verona. Ten finalists were selected by a panel of judges made up of entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts, from an initial pool of 61 innovative companies who entered the contest from 34 different incubators, accelerators and university research centres. Working in the sectors of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, agritech, robotics and life sciences, the ten startups competed for access to the UniCredit Start Lab acceleration programme. The company that came out victorious was Katakem – put forward by the Calabrian innovation hub Entopan – which has developed technology capable of accelerating the development of new molecules and their time-to-market. The new technology is called OnePot, an automated, zero-emissions chemical reactor that digitalises a chemical process, transforming it into a file that can be sent anywhere in the world and instantaneously replicated. Also on the podium were Enphos from Verona, put forward by the INSTM consortium, and Rozes, a spin-off from the University of Padua. Enphos develops solutions for producing green and white hydrogen, which include high-efficiency electrolyzers to generate green hydrogen and artificial-photosynthesis materials and systems to produce white hydrogen and e-fuels. It is working on developing a system for long-term energy storage. Rozes is an innovative startup specialising in artificial intelligence that helps economic operators to anticipate the risk of entering business relationships with potentially dangerous and financially unstable companies. It has developed an index for measuring a company’s risk level by analysing accounting anomalies deriving from fraud, money laundering, false invoicing and fraudulent bankruptcy. The final of the 2023 edition was the first live event since the contest was first launched in 2020. For all the startups that reached the final stage, the event was an opportunity to meet and network with entrepreneurs and investors, participating as the audience for pitch sessions and then in one-to-one sessions with the finalist companies. The final also saw the participation of the best female-led startup of Startup Marathon 2023, already recognised during the Digital Day on 27 October – the online event during which the finalists were selected from the 35 shortlisted companies. This was Bioverse, which produces electromedical equipment designed for use in emergency settings and low-resource contexts. The company has developed Corax, a low-cost, transportable device capable of reproducing the characteristics of an intensive-care room for burns patients, enabling safe transport to hospital structures. Thanks to this success, the startup joined the shortlist for the international acceleration programme Prospera Women. Bioverse was nominated for the initiative, in its role as business accelerator, by Almacube, the innovation hub of Confindustria Emilia Area Centro and the University of Bologna. The event concluded with a presentation from the team Enacuts Polimi of the Politecnico di Milano University, winner of the Enacuts national competition. “We can confirm that the fourth edition of Startup Marathon has been a great success”, declared Roberto Pillon, Head of the Business Generation Unit at Area Science Park. “Not only from a quantitative perspective, with this edition having the highest ever number of participants, but above all in qualitative terms. The startups that took part are in fact a representative sample of the innovation potential of our country – potential that Startup Marathon is working to optimise”. “The final confirmed the value of the startups selected by a panel of judges that are highly competent in the area of innovation”, commented Renzo Chervatin, Head of Regional Development at UniCredit – North-East. “Here at UniCredit, we are very satisfied with the result of this fourth edition of Startup Marathon, which has held an in-person event for the first time at our offices in Verona, for the final. The project demonstrates how open innovation can be the key to generating value for the entire economic and social system: for businesses with clear goals for growth and positioning in the market, for startups on their own path to growth, and for the innovation ecosystem supporting these startups. At UniCredit, we want to play an active role in this process and we believe that participation as a partner of Startup Marathon clearly demonstrates this. Having established an ecosystem of such great value is very exciting.” “There are many startups competing, many businesses and investors participating and many different interests: a challenging but winning formula for those wishing to invest in innovation,” said Gianni Potti, Chair of Fondazione Comunica and founder of DIGITALmeet. “This was an unmissable occasion that has made Startup Marathon one of the leading Italian events in the sector, perfectly integrated with the places we find innovation: incubators, science and technology parks and universities, to promote and further the best Italian entrepreneurial ideas, and to strengthen and support many projects that would otherwise risk being lost without the support of solid innovation organisations.” Launched in 2020, over the years Startup Marathon has selected and recognised innovative companies operating in sectors such as artificial intelligence, diagnostics, IoT and sustainability. Winners of past editions include CAEmate, an enterprise that developed software for the predictive maintenance of infrastructure; Aisent, which provides services based on AI, machine learning and computer vision; and M2Test, a spin-off from the University of Trieste with an innovative method for diagnosing osteoporosis. Partners In addition to the three promoters, Startup Marathon is supported by a range of partners. These are: Unicorn Trainers Club, Elis Innovation Hub, Italian Angels for Growth, Italian Business Angel Network, Giordano Controls, Fastweb, Venture Factory, Start Tech Ventures, Liftt, Carel, Eatable Adventures, Chiesi, Manni Group, Maxfone, Dba Group, Angel for Women, Eurotherm and HiRef. The startups competing The ten startups in the final were: Agreen Biosolutions, Audio Innova, Biomeye, Cyber Evolution, Cyberneid, Enphos, Katakem, Lightscience, Robotizr and Rozes. Startup Marathon is a contest for innovative enterprises open to startups, innovative SMEs and university spin-offs put forward by incubators and business accelerators. Run by Area Science Park, UniCredit and Fondazione Comunica, since 2020, it has selected the most important innovative companies in Italy and accelerated their go-to-market strategy.

The European project POSIDON PCP (POlluted SIte DecontaminatiON Pre-Commercial Procurement) has led to development and testing of two new technologies for soil decontamination in polluted disused industrial areas. The results of experiments in the final phase of the competitive procedure, aimed at the procurement of research and development services, were presented during the final project event on 9 October in Bilbao, Spain. POSIDON, financed by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme and coordinated by Area Science Park, has the goal of driving development of new solutions currently unavailable on the market, from the public demand side. The project gathers five European procurers, owners and/or managers of polluted sites, with the common need to identify new soil-treatment technology (potentially also for groundwater treatment), preferably in situ, capable of decontaminating heterogeneous anthropic soils on brownfields with a mixture of industrial waste (such as soils polluted by petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals) and soils consisting of clays and sands, highly polluted by petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs and PAHs) and heavy metals (arsenic and lead). During the project, various suppliers (mixed research/enterprise consortiums) were invited to develop innovative solutions, in the context of a competition procedure. This included all steps from concept and design of new solutions through to prototyping, laboratory validation and original development of two prototypes for parallel testing in the field on two different sites in Trieste, Italy and Bilbao, Spain. The two technologies that reached the field experiment and comparison phase were those of the consortiums headed by companies TESECO BONIFICHE and HPC Italia. TESECO has developed the technology Soil-Omic® which uses integrated biological and chemical-physical processes aimed to decontaminate soils and groundwater from organic and inorganic pollutants, with biological formulations based on the integration of metagenomics and environmental engineering. The solution uses BIOflushing®, an in-situ decontamination technology that uses specialised hydraulic systems for bio-stimulation, bio-amplification and chemical washing of saturated and unsaturated soils. The results have confirmed the efficacy of the process and the system dedicated to breaking down oil and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as removing heavy metals from saturated and unsaturated soils. Specifically, in Bilbao, in around five months of operation of the system, a significant reduction in average inorganic contamination of unsaturated soil* was recorded, as well as in organic contamination**. Soil-Omic® is under commercialisation and will go to market at the end of 2023. Meanwhile, HPC ITALIA in cooperation with the Politecnico di Milano University, has developed the “Erase” (ElectRode-Aided Soil rEmediation) solution, a flexible, modular, in-situ platform that involves positioning of electrodes to reduce contamination both with organic and inorganic pollutants, through the transport inducted by the electrical field of the soil, in addition to chemical and biological treatment actions through injection of chemical products and nutrients. The modular nature of the technology enables use on contaminated water sources of various sizes and depths. The solution is still in the development phase, but Phase 3 testing has already provided evidence of an increase in the mobility of metals, with a reduction in the concentration of some of these in the soil, while monitoring data has also confirmed a decrease in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and hydrocarbons.   *Reduction in average inorganic contamination of unsaturated soil: Arsenic -97%, Cadmium -82%, Chromium -31%, Nickel -56%, Lead -95%, Copper -96% and Zinc -94%. **Reduction in organic contamination: Hydrocarbons (TPH) -85%, Dibenzo(a.h)anthracene -97%, Benzo(a)pyrene -97%, Indeno(1.2. 3-cd)pyrene -97%, Pyrene -97%, Benzo(a)anthracene -99%, Chrysene -97%, Benzo(b)fluoranthene -99%, Benzo(k)fluoranthene -96% and Sum PAH (EPA 16) -97%.   The POSIDON PCP project involves Area Science Park (coordinator and technical project partner), the group of five managers of polluted sites to be decontaminated: Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic (Lead procurer of the joint pre-commercial contract) (IT), Bilbao City Council (ES) SpaQue (BE), CEA – Vitoria Gasteiz City Council (ES) and Baja do Tejo (PT), joined by the technical partners: Sara Bedin, expert in innovation contracts and pre-commercial procurement (IT); TECNALIA, Basque research centre (ES); IHOBE, Basque environment agency (ES) and MAS communications manager (ES). POSIDON has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, in the context of Grant Agreement No. 776838. The information contained in this press release reflects the authors’ views. The European Research Executive Agency (REA) is not responsible for any use made of the information contained herein.

Three days of exchange of good practices and networking as part of the “EU for Economic Growth” (EU4EG) project: this is the objective of the works taking place from 16 to 18 October at Area Science Park’s Congress Center, where business support organizations, institutional stakeholders and businesses talk about economic development opportunities in the Republic of North Macedonia. Opening the proceedings this morning were Caterina Petrillo, President of Area Science Park, Roberto Antonione, Secretary General of the Central European Initiative (CEI), and Vesel Memedi, Ambassador to Italy of the Republic of North Macedonia. EU4EG, which started in 2021 and has a duration of 48 months, aims to strengthen the economic system of North Macedonia in the context of the country’s accession to the EU. The project aims to achieve greater competitiveness of the production system combined with sustainability and decarbonization, placing a focus on the primary role of industrial ecosystems and innovation, and implementing initiatives oriented towards the digital and green transition, aiming for higher environmental and social standards. Partners of the project, with an overall funding of approximately €9.5 million, are the German Federal International Cooperation Agency (GIZ) (coordinator), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate (BMWK), the Initiative Central Europe (CEI) and Area Science Park. “Area Science Park’s contribution to the project is based on the organization’s consolidated skills in promoting and supporting innovation and its ability to dialogue with businesses and the world of research – explains President Caterina Petrillo -. To this, Area combines the added value of knowing how to produce cutting-edge research in the sectors currently affecting the digital and green transition. This project is very important for us and represents an element of a broader strategy of relations with the Balkans and Central-Eastern Europe that the organization intends to strengthen and relaunch with a view to supporting growth based on research and innovation”. EU4EG is based on three interconnected components. The first involves the mapping of entrepreneurial ecosystems and regional value chains, the identification of the availability of business support services (BSS) in the territories and the creation of a capacity building program aimed at business support organizations (BSOs) to enable them to provide new services to Macedonian SMEs and start-ups. The second component involves the launch of four business acceleration programs to support the growth of selected groups of start-ups. The third component includes a grant scheme for innovation and renewal projects, carried out jointly by SMEs and BSOs on the themes of the Green Deal and the New EU Industrial Strategy. To date, the main results achieved by the project are a capacity building program on 14 topics, 49 methodologies and tools for providing business support services (BSS), 271 hours of training, 170 representatives of business support organizations (BSOs) involved . Furthermore, thanks to EU4EG, 27 joint projects involving Macedonian SMEs and BSOs have been financed, whereby €4.5 million were disbursed by the project, with an additional €5 million co-financed by involved companies.

Trieste is gearing up to host the third edition of the Big Science Business Forum (BSBF) in 2024, an international business-oriented conference that brings together major European research infrastructures. The stages leading up to the forum, set to take place from October 1 to 4 of next year at the Trieste Convention Center located within the Old Port of the regional capital, were unveiled today at Trieste Next, as part of the event “Non solo ricerca. Il valore delle infrastrutture scientifiche per l’economia e la società” (Not just research. The value of scientific infrastructures for economy and society), organized by Area Science Park in collaboration with SiS FVG. Trieste’s selection for BSBF 2024 is no accident: the city has one of the highest concentrations of researchers in Europe and is home to many national and international centers of scientific excellence. Among these is the Consortium for Central European Research Infrastructure (CERIC), an open access point to some of the most advanced scientific investigation structures from eight Central European countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary) in the fields of materials, biomaterials, and nanotechnology, with a special focus on energy and life sciences. “Unlike other external innovation support programs, BSBF is an initiative independently promoted by the scientific community to facilitate the meeting between research and international industry,” explains Paolo Acunzo of ENEA, Director of BSBF Trieste 2024 activities. “The fact that this important forum will be held in Italy for the first time is a clear acknowledgment of the leading role our national system has taken in building a European Big Science market. Until 2025, Trieste will be at the center of attention of the diverse world of Big Science, and as early next week, on September 26, representatives of all major international infrastructures will meet in Trieste to agree on the next joint activities in preparation for BSBF Trieste 2024 ” concludes Acunzo. Trieste’s candidacy, supported by Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia on the initiative of the regional councilor Alessia Rosolen and the Italian government, was also backed by the Central European Initiative, the first International Forum for Regional Cooperation based in Trieste. Co-organizers of the forum include a series of international research centers: CERN, ESA, ESO, ESRF, ESS, European XFEL, FAIR, ILL, F4E, SKAO. The local organizing committee consists of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Municipality of Trieste, Area Science Park, Promo Turismo FVG, the University of Trieste, and the Chamber of Commerce Venezia Giulia. Additional partners are the Industrial Liaison Offices: ILO (Denmark), ILO (Spain), and ILO Network Italia, a network made up of representatives from CNR, ENEA, INAF, and INFN. BSBF aims to be the first “one-stop-shop” for European companies and other organizations interested in interacting with large European scientific organizations. The goal is to create a common market for big science in Europe that is stronger, more transparent, and efficient, without entry barriers for industrial suppliers looking to establish relationships with large research installations. The first edition of BSBF, hosted by the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a huge success. Similar results were achieved by the second BSBF edition held in Granada, Spain: more than 1,000 delegates from over 500 companies and organizations from 30 countries attended. The exhibition area featured over 200 companies and organizations, and over 790 B2B and B2C meetings took place during the event. BSBF offered insights into procurement opportunities and contracts for companies worth nearly 10 billion euros in total per year.

The long-awaited start of the North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley (NAHV) is here at last. The first transnational initiative of this kind under the Horizon Europe program, supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, is being launched in Portorož-Portorose, Slovenia. More than 100 delegates representing 37 project partners from three countries, Croatia, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region in Italy, and Slovenia, will gather there for a project kick-off meeting. Beginning on 1st September 2023, the NAHV will run for 72 months. It includes 17 pilots to be developed in different locations in all three partner countries. The partnership, which has been awarded a grant of €25 million by Clean Hydrogen Partnership, and is led by HSE, Slovenia’s largest electricity producer and trader and the largest producer of electricity from renewable sources, includes 37 organizations: companies, universities, institutes and other public entities from the three participating countries, including Area Science Park. The project design covers the entire value chain of renewable hydrogen use, from production, through storage and distribution, to its end use in various sectors, notably industry and land and maritime transport, creating leverage to accelerate the transition to renewables on three target pillars: hard-to-abate industries, and the energy and transport sectors. These are the main reasons why the NAHV has received the Seal of Excellence, which is awarded under Horizon Europe to projects that have been highly rated. The key aim of the initiative is to create a market for green hydrogen on both the demand and supply sides, making it a competitive energy source for the future. Key industry players from all three countries will develop pilot projects to produce up to 5,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year from renewable energy sources, destined for energy storage, distribution and use. It is expected that some 20% of the produced renewable hydrogen will be exchanged between the participating countries, thus creating a primary regional market for hydrogen. By introducing advanced hydrogen technologies and developing skills and infrastructure, the partnership also pursues other key objectives of the European Green Deal. In particular, the NAHV testbed projects address the decarbonization of important industrial sectors such as steel, cement and glass production, and provide sustainable land and maritime transport solutions linked to reducing the carbon footprint. It is expected that the implementation of the planned mature stage innovation activities will unleash further investments in renewable hydrogen-related technologies in an amount of more than €300 million, destined to increase the capacity of hydrogen production, storage, transmission and use. Additional investments are expected to be funded on top, both during the course of the project implementation and afterwards, from private and public sources in the form of follow-up investments in the successfully implemented pilots in 17 testbed locations across the three participating countries, as well as through new initiatives which will contribute to the evolution of a social and economic ecosystem based on renewable hydrogen. The foreseen development creates the need for new competencies and skills, which makes the universities and research institutions which are partners in the initiative important protagonists in designing and disseminating new educational programmes, as the NAHV is destined to become a vehicle for job creation.

What will the cities of the future look like? Will they be built and/or adapted to sustainability requirements? How will we overcome the challenges of the ecological transition and carbon neutrality These were some of the questions explored at the event “Living the future: a challenge for territories” organised in the context of the GeoAdriatico symposium and in collaboration with the LIFE IN-PLAN project, co-financed by the European Union. Technical personnel, businesspeople and educators met at Area Science Park last June to discuss approaches to tackle the historic challenges facing Europe and beyond, to create sustainable and resilient cities for the future. Speakers at the event, Khalid El-Metaal (UWC Adriatic), Anna Lindorfer (Urban Innovation Vienna), Daniela Luise (Coordinamento Agende 21 Locali Italiane), Francesco Mazza (MOOG inc), Sergio Nardini (East Adriatic Port System Authority), Susana Ruiz Fernandez (Municipality of Bilbao), Fabrizia Salvi (Area Science Park), Roberto Siagri (entrepreneur in the DeepTech industry) and Simona Tršinar (REGEA – Regional Energy and Climate Agency for North-West Croatia) presented interesting proposals from a variety of perspectives (construction to education and territorial planning to urban regeneration), converging on certain universal themes such as the importance of digitalisation and the involvement of citizens, and the role of cities in relaunching the territory in a logic of sustainability. What will the cities of the future look like? How will they differ from those we know now? From environmental challenges to educational, technological, construction and social ones linked to the relationship with local citizens and stakeholders, there are many different aspects to consider when planning future scenarios for local development. Content from the event and ideas that emerged during discussion have been gathered in the report “Living the future: a challenge for territories – 2023 GeoAdriatico symposium”. This provides an overview along with examples from various European cities, from Vienna to Zagreb and Padua to Bilbao, not forgetting the role of largescale logistical infrastructure for the development of local areas, as in the case of Trieste’s port. The workshop identified two driving forces for the future: the digital transformation and circularity & sustainability. Digitalisation, along with AI and robotics, could play a crucial role in shaping the future of our cities and beyond. Embracing this digital transformation, it is essential to rethink everything with a bottom-up approach. The future of cities and non-urban areas may be different from how we have previously imagined, with the digital transformation of areas outside cities into “smart lands”, not just urban areas becoming “smart cities”. Furthermore, the city of the future should be a sustainable, inclusive, safe and lasting urban environment. Through strategic planning and integrated sustainability, cities can take effective action to combat climate change and mitigate its impacts, implementing measures in various spheres, such as sustainable transport systems, incentives for energy-efficient buildings and infrastructure, support for compact urban development, promotion of green spaces and adaptation to changes in the climate. Finally, contemporary urban life should welcome diversity as the nucleus of a vibrant urban centre. Education is key for the sustainable urban communities of the future to inform tomorrow’s citizens and create new areas of awareness. It will be necessary for citizens to have their say and understand the context in which they live. Read the full report