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22/03/2022

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Annual event 2021, a workshop on university-business collaboration in the green transition

The report of the workshop held as part of the NOP Research and Innovation annual event

workshop 2.1

ITA | ENG

The green transition is essential for the growth of the European Union. Along the path towards a more sustainable future, universities and research are key players as they are directly involved in enhancing the climate and environmental literacy of young people and in searching for innovative solutions capable of responding to present and future climate and environmental challenges, also through the involvement of companies. The relationship between academia, research and business in the green transition process was the focus of the “Supporting the Green Transition” workshop, held as part of the NOP Research and Innovation annual event that took place on 22 and 23 February 2022 in collaboration with the European Commission’s University Business Forum.

“The green transition is a topic of great interest for the European Union and the Member States,” said Luca Basile, University of Bologna, workshop moderator and national contact person for Horizon Europe Cluster 5 - Climate, Energy and Mobility. The event presented green transition projects of excellence developed through university-business collaboration, including Etifor, a spinoff company from the University of Padova, which uses research and innovation tools to provide solutions to the socio-economic, environmental and climate challenges of our time.

“We are involved in numerous business projects with companies, public administrations and NGOs,” said Alessandro Leonardi, Managing Director at Etifor, who described the company’s various fields of action that range from governance of natural systems to sustainability of supply chains, from rural development to ecotourism. The company currently employs a team of 40 people with an average age of 32, 40% of whom are former PhD researchers. The workshop continued with a presentation of the activities carried out by Climate-KIC, Europe’s largest public-private partnership focused on climate change and innovation, supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

As explained by Luise Heidenreich, Co-Head of Education and Learning at EIT Climate-KIC, since its foundation in 2010, this community has grown to include over 440 public and private partners across Europe, attracting some 1.8 billion in investment and creating over 10,000 jobs in research and innovation to support the green transition. As part of Horizon Europe, the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation for the period 2021-2027, Climate-KIC and EIT have launched the “HEI Initiative: Innovation Capacity Building for Higher Education”, an initiative aimed at boosting the innovation and entrepreneurial capacity of higher education institutions by funding partnerships with the private sector, innovation projects and institutional improvement initiatives.

Franco Coren, National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS), presented the IPANEMA project that carries out research on climate change and technologies for underground CO2 storage. The project – funded by the NOP Research and Innovation 2014-2020 – involved the enhancement of the ECCSEL - ERIC NatLab-Italy research infrastructure in Panarea, the island north of Sicily that is considered an extraordinary laboratory for its natural CO2 leaking sites. Thanks to funding from the NOP Research and Innovation programme, the infrastructure is equipped with state-of-the-art laboratory instrumentation and technologies for the study, protection and management of marine ecosystems and for CO2 storage research.

Finally, Letizia Magaldi presented the Foak STEM project, funded by the NOP Research and Innovation 2014-2020 and carried out by the company Magaldi Power SpA. The project deals with the construction of a unique plant capable of storing energy from renewable sources through an innovative thermal energy storage technology based on recyclable and eco-friendly materials, such as sand. This innovation is the result of excellent research carried out at this engineering company founded in 1929 and has the potential to drive Italy’s green and ecological transition towards a sustainable future.

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