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Research at the centre of deep tech development

07.01.2025
For the eighth year, the national research body is a partner of the Italian mission at the most important tech event in the world, which begins today in Las Vegas
Innovation services

The Area Science Park national public research organisation is returning to CES in Las Vegas in 2025 – the largest and most important technology industry fair in the world, scheduled for 7 to 10 January – accompanying the 46 Italian startups gathered in the pavilion organised in collaboration with Agenzia ICE. This is an opportunity for the institution to anticipate some new strategic directions in support of innovative companies, particularly in the deep tech sector. The objective: to enhance even more significantly the internal expertise and research infrastructures of the science and technology park, offering important support to research and development activities.

For this edition, as in past participations in the national mission at CES, Area Science Park organised an academy dedicated to the startups in the pavilion. Through a series of training sessions with experts in the sector, the startups were able to prepare for the experience in Las Vegas in the best way: from advice on how to create the perfect pitch, to training on how to approach technological and industrial partners and the media present at the fair, with the aim of maximising business opportunities and visibility.

The institution will also be the protagonist of one of the thematic panels that will be held in the arena set up inside the pavilion, where in-depth meetings with national and international stakeholders from the world of innovation will alternate, pitches by Italian startups and presentations of some of the most interesting innovative companies present in the pavilions of the other countries present in Eureka Park.

 

Upcoming deep tech initiatives

For Area Science Park, the event will be an opportunity to delve deeper into the role of scientific research in the path leading to the commercialization of deep-tech technologies. A strategic line of development for the institution, which during 2025 will structure a new path to support innovative projects with enormous scientific value in the fields of materials science, advanced digital, green energy supply chains, and life sciences.

With a radically different project with respect to traditional research activities on the one hand and support for the entrepreneurial system on the other. For the first time, in fact, the infrastructures, laboratories and related scientific expertise of the researchers at the Trieste campus will be made available to the startups supported by Area.

“The goal is to offer concrete resources for R&D in the context of high-tech entrepreneurial projects, accelerating their entry into the market”, explains Fabrizio Rovatti, technologist manager of Area Science Park. “As an institution, we are evolving from a supporting agency focused mainly on managerial and entrepreneurial development to a model that also integrates high-level technological and scientific skills. This allows us to support startups in their innovation processes with this added value: access to advanced infrastructures and the know-how of our researchers”.

 

Activities in support of Businesses

The research institution’s continued support for the national mission at CES in Las Vegas and, even more so, the upcoming initiatives dedicated to deep tech innovation represent the evolution of a strategy in support of innovative businesses that leverages, on the one hand, the consolidation of a national ecosystem of open innovation, and on the other, the generation of research and business opportunities at an international level, particularly across the Atlantic.

In 2024, Startup Marathon reached its fifth edition, an initiative by Area Science Park, UniCredit and Fondazione Comunica that, with the formula of competition among young innovative companies, stimulates the creation of synergies among the organisations that support them, the world of research, industry and venture capital. An initiative in constant growth that in the last edition gathered support from more than 30 incubators, accelerators, universities and other research institutions that help startups in their creation and growth. Institutions that, in turn, nominated more than 60 of their most interesting organisations to the contest, which had the opportunity, through the various stages of the event, to come into contact with large companies and investors. An initiative enriched this year also by a dedicated open innovation programme, which brought together some corporate and SME partners of Startup Marathon with the startups that were best suited to respond to specific technological needs expressed by the partners themselves.

Among the initiatives to promote the internationalization of innovative Italian companies, especially those led by women, Area Science Park created the BoostHerUp programme, which took place in 2024 in partnership with Prospera Women, a Silicon Valley organisation that brings together programmes in support of female-led startups around the world. Two startups that distinguished themselves in recent editions of the Startup Marathon participated in an acceleration programme in the United States.

 

Italian Startups at CES 2025

The Italian pavilion will be located in Eureka Park, the CES exhibition area dedicated to startups and national delegations organised by different countries around the world, with their respective organisations supporting the development of innovative businesses. For this edition, Italy is represented by 46 startups coming from 14 regions.

Among the innovations made in Italy in Las Vegas, there are numerous advanced computer vision sensor technologies, predictive factory maintenance, intelligent waste management, but space tech is also represented. And also intelligent mobility: from solid supercapacitors for high-performance electric vehicles to a self-driving robotaxi that can be used in a fleet that can be driven remotely. Again this year, the Italian pavilion will pay great attention to clean-tech, that is technologies for environmental sustainability: from the production of energy mobility, with light, portable and foldable solar panels, to a system of sensors that monitor the presence of polluting gases in

large areas, also providing the possibility of preventing the spread of fires; however, there is also an IoT solution to reduce the energy costs of operating industrial machinery without replacing them, and a new technology for additive manufacturing that makes the mass production of components obsolete. And also, health, with technologies mainly based on AI that support doctors’ interventions, in the anamnesis and diagnostic phase, in the clinical evaluation in veterinary visits, or support post-operative patients in following correct rehabilitation. There are also numerous technologies aimed at the mass public, such as the “virtual concierge” for hospitality and the robot that accompanies visits to the museum.

 

The Startups
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