The innovation environment at the University of Calabria

The innovation environment at the University of Calabria Giuseppe Rossi, Francesca Tucci, Massimo Paturzo Liaison Office – Università della Calabria MANASKIN - September 24 – October 2, 2012

Summary The University of Calabria The “third” mission of the University Its functional model Which tools for innovation? Liaison Office – the Technology Transfer Office Pole of Innovations for ICT and Materials Tech. Nest – the Incubator

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The University of Calabria: One of the few residential campus in Italy 40 years old -> quick development 14 Departments for teaching and research, 850 researchers/professors, 750 administratives/technicians about 35’ 000 students A “weak” territory The challenge of the research system in Calabria Technology Transfer to trigger a process of development of the Region Calabria

Università della Calabria Engineering ICT – Computer Science … Hard Science Nano-Technology Applications Genetics 5

The third mission of Universities The two traditional missions of Universities are Research and Teaching. Today, Universities are called to satisfy a third very relevant request: to act as aware engines for the economic and social development of a territory Exploitation of knowledge is a duty, not a right of public research centers

To give value to research results Research/Development Valorisation Critical phases Intellectual Property Rights : patent, … Idea + evaluation

Functional model Market opportunities Demand for patent application State of the Art, priority 1° contact with inventors Research monitoring Commission for patents and spin-off External Consultants Research IDEA National / International patent applications, which belong to University Patent selling Licensing SPIN-OFF/Start up Contacts with industries Commercial valorisation 8

Which tools for innovation and development? • High quality fundamental and applied researches • Intellectual Property (Culture of coded knowledge) • Support to develop new business (business competitions, mentoring, bp development …) • Spin Off/Start Up companies and first-mile incubators • Public system well recognized by private companies and investors • Companies which believe in innovation • Private risk funding (vc, ba, …) Goverments and administrators must work to provide an ecosystem suitable for growth Basic conditions to allow the development of innovative ideas and to obtain value from innovation processes Structures to facilitate innovation processes: TTO, KTO, …

An integrated system for technological transfer CC ICT SUD CENTRO DI COMPETENZA ICT-SUD

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Tech. Nest: the nest of technologies Tech. Nest is the UNICAL’s Academic Business Incubator (ABI), which was created in 2010. Tech. Nest occupies a 2000 m 2 area on UNICAL’s Campus and has 20 offices, meeting and conference space, with a well-developed ICT infrastructure It currently hosts 16 S&T-based firms, which were selected through the business accelerator programme, business plan competitions (Progetto Crescita, Start Cup Calabria) and the University Spin-off programme The incubator programme currently focuses on the following three priority areas: materials and nanotechnologies; quality of life and health; and information and communication technology (ICT)

Start Cup Calabria 2011 Regional business competition managed by University of Calabria …in collaboration with Dpixel and Techgarage Period May-September 2011 Access to National Prize for Innovation (PNI) 200 partecipants 50 business ideas First special prize (1 M€ in equity) for 2 business ideas: -Eco 4 Cloud -Altilia 14