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CTE Next opens its doors: welcome home, Technology!

During the inauguration on Tuesday morning, the value of Turin's ecosystem of innovation was once again reaffirmed.

CTE Next aims to create in Turin, thanks to the commitment of the 13 partners of the project, a widespread technology transfer center on emerging technologies to create an attractive and creative environment for startups and Italian and foreign SMEs. CTE Next will provide facilities and resources for applied research and testing and will create training, events and opportunities for connection between the players of the ecosystem, inserting itself as a link between all the projects of Torino City Lab, the innovation policy of the City of Turin.

On Tuesday morning the project, presented earlier this year, was officially inaugurated in the premises of CSI Next, the new headquarters of CSI Piemonte in Corso Unione Sovietica 216 in Turin. Marco Pironti, Councillor for Innovation and Smart City of the City of Turin, introduced the initiative.

"Technology lives here" is the claim of CTE NEXT in Turin. This project was created revolving around four strategic sectors for the city: smart road, urban air mobility, industry 4.0 and innovative urban services. During the event it was reiterated that it will not be "a house enclosed within four walls, but a house with many rooms", with many locations dedicated to different types of activities thanks to the availability of the project partners:

  • CSI Next: demonstration, dissemination, coordination
  • OGR Tech: acceleration by Techstars, networking, ecosystem and innovation
  • Politecnico di Torino: Click laboratory
  • Links Foundation: Cyber Range and Smart Mobility labs
  • Università degli studi di Torino: HPC4AI-CC laboratory
  • Competence Center CIM 4.0: stress test area, Smart Factory
  • Talent Garden Fondazione Agnelli: coworking spaces, activities dedicated to the community

In addition to these physical spaces, the streets and skies of the city will also be areas of experimentation for autonomous driving algorithms, traffic control, drone flight and vertical take-off vehicles for goods and passenger transport.

Marco Pironti said: "We don't want technology to be only experimental but to create work and business opportunities. The relationship between the public and private sectors is fundamental for the creation of an open partnership in which all the players will be there because they want to be and not because they have to: this is the only way to truly create open innovation".

The Mayor of Turin and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, Chiara Appendinointervened at the opening, and in her speech she highlighted how the material and immaterial infrastructure of the ecosystem of Turin must have as main objective to build opportunities: believing in innovation is not an easy test because it can also lead to failures but it is precisely from those that we must take the real challenges and create the basis for creating national and international networks of technological excellence, to share knowledge and exploit the potential expressed by our city and our country, at national, European and global level.

"Thanks to the constant and resilient work of the Administration carried out in the last 5 years on the theme of innovation and smart city, Turin has won at the national level this coveted program that aims to accelerate the transition of the leading cities of innovation towards new models of sustainable urban development", said Chiara Appendino and Marco Pironti. "Turin has become an internationally recognized laboratory city for its smart city experiments, which leverage emerging technologies to create new services for businesses and citizens. We firmly believe that this program can empower Turin and its innovation ecosystem by bringing tangible and sustainable benefits to the territory and its stakeholders".

Then Letizia Maria Ferraris, President of CSI Piemonte: spoke: “Internet of things, 5G, big data: these are the technologies that represent a real opportunity for Turin to become part of the digital transformation, which is happening day by day, as a protagonist. Technology is not a neutral thing, we must be the ones to fill this transformation with values and guide the dynamics of technology transfer from and to startups and businesses. CSI Piemonte has among its values helping citizens and businesses. We need adequate infrastructure, knowledge and skills to create a digital culture: the involvement not only of companies and universities but also of young people, families and older generations is essential so that no one feels excluded, we need a proactive role of the PA with respect to the needs of citizens. When it was born, in 1978, CSI Piemonte had at the base of its mission to unite scientific research, regional and local government programming to modernize PA. It was a prophetic intuition and today, with CTE Next, we add a new important piece for our territory, to look forward with confidence to a future of recovery and continuity".

The kick-off moment closed with a comment from Vincenzo Zezza, Territorial Inspectorate of the Ministry of Economic Development: "Startups, businesses but above all people should be encouraged to stay in this city, therefore, it should be made more and more attractive, so that it keeps the talents on this territory, so that it is the best solution for young people who are building a future".

After an immersive moment for the public during which the spaces of CSI Next were shown, through a remote visit with indoor Skycopter drones, the ribbon was cut by Chiara Appendino, attended by representatives of the partners of CTE Next: 

  • Stefano Geuna, Dean of Università degli studi di Torino
  • Guido Saracco, Dean of Politecnico di Torino
  • Paola Mogliotti, director of the incubator of Politecnico di Torino I3P
  • Giuseppe Serrao, director of the incubator of the University of Turin 2i3T
  • Marco Mezzalama, president Links Foundation
  • Massimiliano Cipolletta, president Torino Wireless
  • Paolo Brizzi, program manager CIM4.0
  • Rossella Panero, general manager 5T
  • Daniele Franceschini, Head of Technology Innovation, Standardization & IPR TIM
  • Alberto Fioravanti, Chief Technology Officer Digital Magics
  • Barbara Graffino, CEO Talent Garden Agnelli Foundation
  • Letizia Maria Ferraris, President CSI Piedmont
  • Mirko Berlier, Chief Technology Officer Cisco Southern Europe
  • Enrico Mercadante, Lead for Specialists and Innovation Cisco Southern Europe

Before the closing, two thematic panels were held to deepen expectations and impressions, national and international, on the contribution that will come from CTE Next in the development of innovative dynamics of national survey and beyond:

  1. Acceleration and development of innovative startups: what ingredients?
    with Loris De Gioanni (CIO Sysdig) and Francesca Moriani (CEO Var Group);
  2. An international look at local innovation ecosystems from Europe and beyond
    with Nicola Farronato (Head of innovation team Torino City Lab), Colin Tarbert (President & CEO Baltimore Development Corporation) and Judith O'Meara (Director of EIT Mobility).

During the institutional greetings at the end of the event, joined by Pietro Pacini, General Manager of CSI Piemonte, it was reiterated how CTE Next is the result of a collective effort, made of many individual efforts by those who believed in the project from the beginning and who started and developed it throughout the pandemic emergency, with the various difficulties involved. It was recalled that this should be a starting point, an opportunity for anyone working on our territory in the field of innovation to join forces towards a restart that must take place as soon as possible and that puts at the center collaboration, contact and human encounter to stimulate the growth of Turin and its role as a nerve center for Italian and international innovation.

"Today we are inaugurating, next to our historic headquarters, a highly innovative structure that will represent the ideal bridge between the present and the future of public administration, as well as the meeting point with research and industry," said Pietro Pacini. "A forge for ideas and a gym to practice innovation, which will also be inspired by the beauty of the spaces that will be made available to help create the Turin of tomorrow. We've been working on it for years and I'm sure it will best realize the ideal of a public sector that is finally fast, easy and close to people".

Author

Luca Coppolella
Head of Content

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