The University of Palermo and the ARTES 4.0 Centre of Competence, promoted by the Sant'Anna School, together to increasingly stimulate the participation of university research in the innovation development processes of Sicilian companies
The University of Palermo and the ARTES 4.0 Centre of Competence, financed by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, promoted by the Sant'Anna School of Pisa and a leading player in Italy in digital transformation and digital transition, sign a collaboration agreement on the technical-scientific level to push innovation in Sicilian enterprises and stimulate the creation of new enterprises. The agreement lays the foundations for the Competence Centre to be located in the beating heart of the education of and for young talents, within the University, creating a direct link with local businesses and pushing the generation of new enterprises, in collaboration with the Administration and with the other Bodies and Associations with which ARTES 4.0 has been working in Sicily for a long time. This is a significant tool to accelerate the processes of innovation and the creation of qualified jobs in Sicily in a path that starts at the university and develops with technology transfer on cutting-edge European models.
‘With this Agreement ARTES 4.0 wants to bring its ecosystem to Palermo to make the area a pivotal point in Sicily and in the Mediterranean of new entrepreneurship, launching in a targeted manner its services in the region financed up to 100% through the use of advanced technologies in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence and related enabling digital technologies that represent our focus and in fact cover the entire scope of Industry 4.0 and 5.0 states Prof. Antonio Frisoli, Full Professor of Robotics at the Sant'Anna School and President of ARTES 4.0.
‘The specific objective is to respond on the one hand to the needs of Sicilian companies, also and above all thanks to and young people trained at the university, and on the other to support talents in the path of creating entrepreneurial opportunities that are then generative of opportunities for all and sundry,’ continues Prof. Paolo Dario, Emeritus of Sant'Anna School, Scientific Director of the Centre of Competence and Coordinator of the European Digital Innovation Hub ARTES 5.0.
‘With this collaboration, we are giving our young people new opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills and to enter the world of work, with spin-offs for the Mediterranean area and Sicily, which has all the elements to become a leader in key scientific and technological areas,’ says Rector Massimo Midiri . ’The agreement will offer new organisational-managerial models to support the university-business chain in the fields of robotics, automation, AI, and digital technologies in the 4.0 and 5.0 spheres. ARTES 4.0 adds value to UniPa's Digital Transformation and Technology transfer HUB, which was created to promote and stimulate the innovative transformation processes of enterprises and, at the same time, to offer opportunities for growth and success to the many talents and different professional skills that are formed within the University in a continuous exchange of knowledge, services and research tools’.
ARTES 4.0, with 13 Founding Partners including Universities of Excellence and national Research Centres such as CNR and the Italian Institute of Technology, operates according to the Science-DrivenInnovation model of science-led innovation, anticipating the scope of activities of a Centre of Competence - typically between TRL 4-5 and TRL 7-8 to university research, and extending it to the scale-up of companies through targeted collaborations with investment funds and venture capital. Through a partnership, in addition to the founding members, of 150 highly qualified affiliated members, which also includes Associations and Foundations with a technological vocation, Research and Training Institutes and Bodies, companies of all sizes selected for their technological excellence and innovative character that share 86 research laboratories and more than 130 use cases for the application of emerging technologies, ARTES 4.0 supports, through the provision of innovative services, the digital and ecological transition process of Italian companies and public administrations, also through the coordination of a European Digital Innovation Hub on 5.0 transition issues.
Endowed with public and private funding, the Centre of Competence finances and accompanies companies' innovation by providing innovation services such as Testing Before Invest, Training, Networking, Access to Funding, Consultancy on innovation issues and Market Access in Industry 4.0 and 5.0, and by promoting Calls for Proposals for the funding of industrial research and experimental development projects.
