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On March 21^st 2017 one of the topics of discussion at Politecnico was the challenges of the researchers and the obtained results, which make the university rank in the first places in Italy and in Europe as regards the funding per head. The quality of the scientific and technological research is the basis of the reputation of a university in Europe and in the world.

The obtained results and the future strategies were examined and explained to the city and the region, in order to show the challenges of the scientific research together with the strategies and the actions that were carried out thanks to the support of institutional and industrial partners; their collaboration fosters projects in different sectors of the fundamental and applied research. On this occasion it was possible to show the main results Politecnico obtained in this sector, which make the university rank in the first places in Italy and Europe as regards the funding per head: there are already 100 projects of the programme UE Horizon2020 and around 37 million euros have been given out in the last three years. All these factors enabled Politecnico to gain better positions both on a national and on a European level: it ranks 4^th in Italy and 58^th in Europe, overcoming other bigger universities. There are also 36 international projects, 112 national projects and 342 regional projects that have been obtained in the last five years and are worth 62 million euros. There are also important research contracts with agencies and businesses (about 19 million euros in 2016).

The university has started specific projects in order to encourage students to participate and to increase the project activities: the projects H2020@polito and ERC@polito offer professors and researchers tools that support the activities. There has also been an announcement (La ricerca dei talenti – The talents research) supported by Fondazione CRT, whose aim was to give value to the independence of young researchers.

In addition, many activities have been organised thanks to the partnership between Politecnico and Compagnia di Sanpaolo: as regards the internationalisation of research, new announcements have been introduced. Their objective is the development of partnerships with universities which rank in the first 50 positions of the international rankings or which are in strategic areas of interest for Politecnico; another goal is the creation of research projects in collaboration with international agencies of excellence, thanks to exchanges of doctorate students. Starting grants are also planned, in order to finance highly-qualified researchers who come from other universities or research agencies. Last but not least, Mettin in rete la tua idea di ricerca is a new initiative which allows the sharing of research ideas on the internet, which has been launched to give value to the collaborative research.

The vice-dean for research Stefano Corgnati and the director of the Research Area Laura Fulci have explained the actions and the projects that have been started. The researchers of the university have presented some of the projects of fundamental and applied research (individual or collaborative), showing videos where they talk about the various fields of research of Politecnico, the departments and the many financial sources which support the projects, the mobility and the career of the researchers. Important industrial partners the university collaborates with took the floor as well: among them Prima Industrie, which collaborates on a project about Technological Platforms – Intelligent Plant of Regione Piemonte; FCA, which has given its contribute for almost 20 years; ENI and GM, which have signed partnership agreements with the university.

Finally, a workshop introduced by the President of Compagnia Sanpaolo and the previous dean of the university Francesco Profumo enabled the discussion with institutional partners and businesses about the relationship between Politecnico and the socio-economic system of the region and of the country, in a background where new roles and new financial models are extremely requested from a technical university.

“Universities are requested not only to carry out scientific research, but also to contribute to promote the spread of new technologies, in collaboration with the socio-economic system and the institutions. They also have to be able to find solutions for the challenges they face. Politecnico has established itself as a Research University, which is recognised on an international level, as the most accredited rankings show: in fact, Politecnico has one of the highest positions in the world as regards Engineering and Architecture” said the dean Marco Gilli during his introduction.

“Politecnico must confront itself with an international research context which has become more and more competitive but which also offers unlimited resources” said the vice-dean for research Stefano Corgnati. “For this reason Politecnico has defined new strategies in favour of research, in collaboration with the most prestigious universities in the world and continuous exchanges of researchers and professors. We have also adopted specific policies for the promotion of multidisciplinary activities, since we want to put together the knowledge of different sectors in order to carry out complete research that make us competitive with the great international research groups. Finally, we have planned support actions for the young researchers who have to work in innovative and difficult fields, where a high scientific quality is necessary expertise on an economic, financial and management level”.

The University of Turin has developed a project to transform the university through a network system, in order to satisfy the requests for the reorganisation of educational and research activities, but also to meet the needs to decongest the present seats of the university.

Regione Piemonte, Comune di Grugliasco and University of Turin have defined the content of the agreement for the placement of a Scientific Campus in Grugliasco. The agreement is signed on Thursday March 16^th 2017 at Sala Riunioni of Giunta Regionale in Piazza Castello 195, Turin, at 12.30.

The agreement is signed by the Region President Sergio Chiamparino, the Mayor of Grugliasco Giuseppina De Santis and the vice-dean for Building of the University of Turin Bartolomeo Biolatti.

Polito Techshare 2017 takes place on Tuesday March 14^th 2017 at 11.45 a.m. at Sala Consiglio di Facoltà of Politecnico di Torino: more than 100 businesses have been invited and 300 one-to-one meetings between inventors and businesses are scheduled. This initiative has been organized by Politecnico di Torino and Intesa Sanpaolo to improve the collaboration between universities and businesses, in order to develop the transfer of the research results and the relationships with the Small and Medium Enterprises of the region. Politecnico and TIM, which entered this project this year, supported by Intesa Sanpaolo, Confindustria Piemonte and Unione Industriale di Torino, will offer the Italian Small and Medium Enterprises a series of licenses and technologies together with their competence, in order to accelerate the innovative projects and improve the ability of competing on an international level.

Each participating business will have the opportunity to create their daily agenda, by planning one-to-one meetings with the inventors of technologies of interest for their own business.

In addition, there will be a workshop about “Technologies Transfer and Industry 4.0”. Here you can find the program of the day:

PROGRAM

8.30 a.m. – One-to-one meetings with the inventors

11.45 a.m. – Welcome meeting

Emilio Paolucci  Vice dean of Technologies Transfer of Politecnico di Torino

Fabio Spagnuolo  Network and Innovation Culture, Intesa Sanpaolo

12.10 a.m. – Technologies Transfer and Industry 4.0

Speakers:

Stefano Corgnati  Vice dean for research at Politecnico di Torino

Dario Gallina  President – Unione Industriale of Turin

Fabrizio Gea  Delegate of Agenda Digitale, Confindustria Piemonte

Luca Calò  Regional Direction of Piedmont, Liguria and Aosta Valley – Intesa Sanpaolo

Pierpaolo Marchese  Responsible for Standard Coordination and Industry Influecing

1.00 p.m. – Networking buffet

2.00 p.m. – One-to-one meetings with the inventors

5.30 p.m. – Closure

The inauguration of the Academic Year 2017 of Turin School of Development takes place on March 6^th at 11.30 a.m. at Centro Congressi “Piemonte” of ILO (Viale Maestri del Lavoro 10, Turin). TSD is a program of the International Training Centre of ILO that puts together all the masters organized by the University of Turin and Politecnico and realized thanks to the support of Compagnia di San Paolo.

Participants in the ceremony are around 200 students enrolled in excellence courses of ILO. Many important figures will take the floor: among them the Ambassador Maurizio Enrico Serra, head of the Permanent Delegation at ONU in Geneva, Councilor Benedetto Giuntini, from the Directorate General for Italian Citizens Abroad and Migration Policies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Professor Francesco Profumo, President of Compagnia di San Paolo, and the dean of the University of Turin Gianmaria Ajani.

Experts of innovation and technologies transfer from Italian universities will gather in the Hotel des Geneys in Bardonecchia from 6^th to 8^th March 2017 during the Netval Winter School 2017, organized by Netval (Italian Network of Technologies Transfer Offices of Universities and Public Research Organizations) and supported by the University of Turin, Politecnico di Torino and the University of Eastern Piedmont.

Netval was founded in 2002 and today includes 56 universities and 6 research organizations; its objective is to give value to the university research in front of the economic and business sector, by building bridges between the public research and the businesses which are interested in improving their competitiveness through innovation.

Netval’s schools are always organized in different Italian cities and are a great opportunity to take stock of the situation of the relationship between university innovation and businesses. Participants in this event are professors, researchers, doctors, experts of technologies transfer, entrepreneurs, sponsors, experts who will present incubators and businesses’ accelerators, experts of this sector and other interested figures (not business partners of Netval as well).

The main topic of this Netval Winter School will be the “student entrepreneurship”. It is clear that nowadays universities and research organizations are able to support professors, researchers and doctors in creating start-up and spin-off companies thanks to businesses’ incubators.

Both in Italy and abroad there are more and more businesses which are founded by young students who haven’t got their degree, yet; these businesses are likely to generate successful enterprises.

The question is: how can Italian universities make the innovative potential of the students emerge? And how can they help them realize it, so that they are able to create real businesses?

The vice-deans of scientific research and technologies transfer of the organizing universities, professor Silvio Aime (University of Turin), professor Emilio Paolucci (Politecnico di Torino) and professor Roberto Barbato (University of Eastern Piedmont), are satisfied with the positive effects this event could have on the region. They are also very proud of Netval’s choice of welcoming the offer of the three Piedmont’s universities: this shows its great interest in innovation and in collaboration for the realization of common projects of Piedmont’s universities.