CORDIS Archive

Torino - A region of excellence for innovative start-ups
---
The total area of the Piedmont Region is 25,399 km2 and it had 4.3 million inhabitants in 1999. There are 1,207 municipalities, thirty of which have a population of over 20,000. Torino is the only town with a population of over 500,000. The population of the Torino Area adds up to 2.1 million inhabitants.

The GDP of the Area is 51.09 billion Euros (4.16% of the national income produced). Export activity adds up to 15.2 billion Euros (5.7% of Italian exports). In the Area 184,358 companies are active (3.7% of Italian companies). Among these, 6,680 operate in the ICT sector (8.2% of Italian ICT companies). There are 12,000 employees in the R&D sector (8.5% of Italian R&D employees).

The Enterprise System
---
Situated in the northwest of Italy, the Torino Area has been historically characterised by strong industrial development, particularly in car-manufacturing and hi-tech enterprises.

FIAT, Italy’s largest car manufacturer, was founded in Turin. During the past years, the services sector has also recorded a high increase in output. The evolution of the enterprise system of the Torino Area has been conditioned by the interaction between two main tendencies: internationalisation and the growth of the tertiary sector.

The first is linked to a strong continuous growth of exports in the mechanical and chemical sectors, foodstuffs, fashion and the car industry. The second constitutes the key of the economic boom of the area at a time when the agricultural and manufacturing sectors are being rationalised. The dynamism of the tertiary sector, however, has mostly concerned finance and business services to the detriment of the traditional sectors of the car industry, transport and distribution.

Another sector that is strongly growing up is the wireless sector. Recently the Torino Wireless Foundation, a joint public private initiative, has been funded, aiming at creating the first wireless district in Italy. Torino Wireless intervenes both in the research and in the growth acceleration and venture capital stages. Its ambitious objectives for the next five years include the doubling of the ICT contribution to GDP, the tripling of the number of researchers and the ten-fold increase in hi-tech start-ups.

The Research and Education System
---
Different Research and Development Centres operate in the Torino Area. These are the most important ones :

Fiat Research Center, Tilab (in the ICT field), Mario Boella Institute (research on information technology and telecommunications), CSP (Center for innovative information and network technology) ENEA Energy Research Center, Istituto Elettronico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris (Electronic and technical research), the research institutes of the National Research Council that operate in various sectors, RTM Institute (Research center for mechanical technologies).

In the Torino Area there are major universities and training institutions :

Politecnico of Torino (12 departments involved in research), University of Torino (17 departments involved in research), Business Administration School, ISVOR FIAT, the International Training Centre of the International Labour Office and the European Training Foundation.

Scientific Parks and Incubation facilities
---
IFive Science and Technology Parks are active in the Piedmont region, three of which are located in the Torino Area. Endowed with sophisticated instruments in the field of new technologies, the parks promote SMEs’ research of new forms of development, efficiency and competitiveness. All the parks offer service centres and equipped spaces, as well as various kinds of consultancy and technical support.

The Environment Park is the first to have been entirely dedicated to the environment. Situated in Torino, it is directed towards firms and research bodies which operate in the environmental technology sector and/or in assisting in the certifying process of procedures and products.

The Bioindustry Park Canavese situated near Torino is open to firms operating in the chemical, biological, pharmaceutical, bio-technical, agricultural, bio-medical energy and information sectors.

The Virtual Reality and Multimedia Park situated in Torino, provides services concerning planning, consultancy and the organisation of spectaculars and events, of which the application of virtual reality is the object.

The Science, Technology and Communications Park of Valle Scrivia is directed towards innovative enterprises which mainly operate in the telecommunications sector. It offers technological consultancy, management consultancy and innovative services.

The Technological Park of Lago Maggiore is directed towards the biotechnology sector which is interested in nursery gardening, ecology technology, new material experimenting, industrial automation, building automation, and industrial components.

In the Torino Area 2 University Business Incubators and 3 Urban Area Business Incubators have been established as well (Lisem, Atelier and an e-commerce incubator). Moreover, each Science Park has its own incubator.

I3P – Innovative Companies Incubator of Torino Politecnico was founded in 1999 by the Politecnico of Torino, the Province of Torino, the Chamber of Commerce of Torino and Finpiemonte (the financial institute of the Piedmont Region).

Its aim is to promote the birth and growth of innovative start-ups via centralised services, consultancy and support for the creation and management of the new enterprise; it also offers to start-ups a culturally stimulating environment and strong visibility.

I3P’s mission is to encourage and help students, researchers and the staff of the Politecnico, the University and other Research Centres in the creation of a new company, but also all those who, to realise their business idea, require the technical, scientific and logistic support offered by the Politecnico. It operates in particular in the pre-incubation, incubation and growth stages, and annually promotes the Galileo Ferraris Award - a business planning award for high-tech business projects, arrived in 2004 at its 5th edition.

At the end of 2003 I3P hosted 39 companies; 10 companies have successfully ended the incubation period and are active now in the open market.

I3P sponsors include the City of Torino, CRT Foundation (one of the major local bank), Hewlett Packard, Noicom and the Industrialists Union of Torino.
It works together with Corep (Consortium for the Research and Permanent Education), Mario Boella Institute, ITP (Agency for Investments in Turin and Piedmont), Torino Internazionale (Association coordinating and monitoring the Strategic Plan of Torino) the Young Entrepreneurs Group of the Industrialists Union, and many other associations active in the Torino Area.