fiˇ˘ n.300 delrio · 2014. 10. 27. · of the council of ministers, and delegated to policy for...

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TrenToANNO XXXI | June/July 2014

Uno, nessuno e centomila: verso una gestione unitaria dell’identità digitale

N.300

RIVISTA DI CULTURA DIGITALE FONDATA DA GIOVANNI GIOVANNINI

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DelrioNew italian Renaissance

FUB: ricerca ed innovazione al servizio del Paese

only in italian version

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EIT ICT Labs Italy

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EIT ICT Labs Italy

newsletter del mercoledì: invia una mail a [email protected] per aderire

Direttore responsabile: Maria Pia Rossignaud Direttore scientifico: Derrick de Kerckhove

MILLENIUM s.r.l. Direzione e Redazione: Via Piemonte, 117 | 00187 Roma | Tel. [+39] 06 48 19 145 www.mediaduemila.it

From the lab to lifeFrom the lab to life

Uff. AmministrazioneSede legale: Piazza Sallustio, 15A | 00187 Roma | Tel. [+39] 06 48 19 145 | Fax [+39] 06 42 00 17 86C.F. e P.I. 06756090012 | R.E.A. n.1080507

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from the lab to life

1

Italy – the land of genius and invention for a new Renaissance

“Italy will go digital with Renzi”

ICT in Italy, a market worth 100 bn per year (5-8% of GDP)

Public & Private working together

Involving & contaminating places and citizens

Potential 21st century employment: the skills required

Creativity and growth in Europe

Our goal is to improve the quality of life

Europe and Training

Silicon Valley ecosystem of excellence, the rest of the world is 20 years behind

N. 300N. 300

Comitato di Direzione:

Enrica Amaturo, Furio Colombo, Luigi Dadda Mario Frullone, Giampiero Gramaglia, Bruno Lamborghini Gianni Letta, Paolo Lutteri, Angelo Raffaele MeoCarlo Mochi Sismondi, Noris Morano, Mario Morcellini Sabrina Mossenta, Francesco Passerini Glazel, Egidio Pentiraro Andrea Piersanti, Cesare Protettì, Gianni Puoti, Mario Ricciardi Pierluigi Ridolfi, Ruben Razzante, Guido Salerno, Leonardo Santi Roberto Saracco, Daniela Viglione, Alberto Vitale

Comitato Editoriale:

Maurice Benayoun, Philippe Cahen, Fabrizio Carotti Marina Ceravolo, Marco Cerrone, Matteo CiastellardiGiovanni Ciofalo, Gianni di Giovanni, Giorgio FontanaCarlo Formenti, Nicoletta Iacobacci, Joi ItoMarco Lanzarone, Sergio Maistrello, Roberto MasieroLella Mazzoli, Michele Mezza, Roberto NataleLuigi Nicolais, Daniele Pitteri, Stefano RodotàLivia Serlupi Crescenzi, Imma Tubella, Vincenzo Maria Vita

Graziano Delrio 2

Paolo Coppola 5

EIT ICT Labs Italy

Roberto Saracco 6

Fabio Pianesi e Gian Mario Maggio 11

Roberto Saracco 18

Maurizio Marchese 22

Marco Senigalliesi 28

Laura Meijere Cristanelli 33

Gert Guri 39

Fabio Carati 40

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digital agenda

Research - cornerstone of the new Italian Renaissance. What is your view?Research is fundamental for a country - but also for a city or a company

- wanting to make a fresh start. That’s because research means development and economy. Our Country’s renaissance will happen through investing in culture, education and knowledge. Education and research are the foun-dations of the “knowledge society” because innovation and a new way of thinking are the only means for us to once again become the “genius of invention” we always were. And this is what comes to mind when I associ-ate the words research and renaissance. It reminds me of when, during the post-war economic boom period, Italy conquered its place in the field as seventh-industrial world power, pulling itself out of a war crisis that had brought it to its knees. The stories of many entrepreneurs - on a small and large scale- teach us this. Being skilled at discovering new things through creative processes is what “made that difference” and also made thousands of working families wealthy. This is what we must strive towards. It’s why we need start believing in research again, for example by ensuring excellent standards in university and postgraduate education, employment packages and conditions that are appropriate for those working in research, competi-tive, meritocratic reward mechanisms, an appropriate level of structural and infrastructure funding and communication channels with the enterprise world to ensure the highest dissemination. The challenge is ambitious, but well worth taking up.

What are the priorities for reducing the gap between technology and culture in Italy, which is no doubt larger than in the rest of Europe?

The Government is betting on making Italy a technologically advanced country. This is why we strongly believe in the Digital Agenda project, in which we have laid down the strategic priorities regarding Digital Growth and the development of the Digital Infrastructure. A project based on a strategy to use Structural Funds for the 2014-2020 period and which aims to turn Italy into a place where digital is a catalyst for change throughout the Country, serving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Digital poli-

Italy - the land of genius and invention for a new Renaissance“The Government has a growing country in mind” the State Secretary to the Italian Prime Minister explains to Media Duemila – “when it sets its sights on culture, research, innovation and digital education.”

What does digital culture mean?An aware and informed use of the enabling technologies that the Internet provides us today.

Anna MaseraHead of Communication, Parliament


Graziano Delrio | UNDER-SECRETARy To ThE PRIME MINISTER

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digital agenda

3

cies are therefore helping create a regulatory framework that promotes sim-plification and transparency: we are working on digitalizing all areas - from justice to trade - to taxation. The Digital Agenda is a proper business plan in which the Italian nation is required to implement structural intervention to bring about change in its economy, social fabric and institutions and to deal with the issue of the digital culture gap preventing new digital opportunities from being exploited.

What strategy can protect and support the birth of new leading players?Italy will finally be able to rise again when it gives the new generations

answers that are certain and reliable. The Government is convinced that with everyone’s help we can overcome the discouragement, alienation and resignation affecting many young people. The figures speak clearly; it’s still an uphill road. Unemployment at 42% and the two million, two hundred and fifty thousand young people aged between 15 and 29 who are neither employed nor studying, seem to be telling us Italy is no country for the young. And this is why the Government wants to give maximum encour-agement so today’s youth doesn’t surrender. And to do this, we’ll be right behind them to support them, not by sweet-talking them - as has been done too often - but with facts so that each finds the lost attention they need. And this is the spirit with which, from May the 1st last year we deployed the Youth Guarantee scheme, which provides over 1.5 billion euros in in-vestments for the 2014-2015 period. Its target is precisely young people aged 18 to 25 belonging to the “NEET” classification (Not in Education, Employment or Training), amounting to 7.5 million across the entire Eu-ropean Union, in other words that’s 12.9% of young people. As far as Italy is concerned, this plan guarantees that all young people under the age of 25 receive a quality job offer, the chance to continue education, an appren-ticeship or job placement within a period of four months from when they become unemployed or leave the formal education system.

Media Duemila

Graziano Delrio | UNDER-SECRETARy To ThE PRIME MINISTER

Graziano Delrio is

Under-Secretary to the

Prime Minister, Secretary

of the Council of Ministers,

and delegated to Policy for

Territorial Cohesion and Sport.

Has been appointed February

22, 2014 by the Chairman of the

Board, Matteo Renzi.

Has been in politics from the end

of the nineties: in 2000 he was

elected Councillor of the Region

of Emilia Romagna, where he

chaired the Commission on

Health and Social Policies.

In 2004 he was elected mayor

of Reggio Emilia and in 2009

was confirmed for a second

mandate. While Vice president

of ANCI, with the authorization

of the Welfare and Local

Finance Authority, the National

Assembly of Mayors elected

him President in October 2011.

As mayor, he chaired the

organizing committee of the

campaign for the reform of

citizenship, "Italy is also me",

promoted by the major social

organizations.

He left the offices of the mayor

and the ANCI in June 2013

following other commitments

in the national government.

gRaziaNo DelRio

Social behaviors are also described in terms of networks and we are looking at brain

connectivity trying to understand how it works ...

From the blog of Roberto Saracco: iCT Days 2014, Data tapestry

… We live in a connected world and technology has increased this connectivity.

More than that. At a perceptual level we tend to see everything in terms of

networks. The casualty principle (at the core of Science for hundreds of years) is yet

another example of a network, a chain of events resulting in something we detect.

Infrastructures are all around us, be it roadways, power lines, and of course,

Internet and the web.

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w

I OsservatOrIO TuttiMedia

Esperti da tutto il mondo al servizio di istituzioni, aziende e persone per gestire l’innovazione.

Dal network Culture & Technology international i più avanzati servizi di consulenza con il metodo dell’Atelier di intelligenza connettiva.

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Moltiplicare le mentiMultiply mind by mind

CULT

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Decision Making World Wide Consortium

Derrick de KerckhoveMaria Pia Rossignaud

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political will

Will the Italian Digital Agenda (AGID) solve this?With the AGID, we’re working on a nationwide to disseminate digital culture and

skills, a useful context analysis tool. We’ve already sat all the stakeholders down togeth-er with the aim of encouraging digital skills and overcoming resistance and obstacles through decisive, common action.

What’s the most difficult obstacle? So far there has been a lack of political will, that’s essential in order to move forward.

We have it today.

This era of transparency implies a return to a “shaming culture”. Will we see an elite emerge for the common good - a kind of public role model?

The excess of transparency that’s characteristic of our times - I’m not only referring to Italy – translates as excessive exposure of citizens to the State, but not the other way round. Differential privacy in the age of Big Data is a crucial field of research because one can trace back the identity of an individual from aggregate data. I already addressed the subject in Florence in 2012. Ensuring the privacy of citizens/users and always being able to identify who stores the data are today’s priorities.

What is digital culture for you?Above all, it means understanding the potential of computerization and also

how useful computers are in human activities. We must not dwell on what already exists; we need to understand its potential. We made mistakes in the past; the PC was seen as an intruder between man and paper: it is essential to change approaches and processes.

The Renzi Government and computerization?Our PM is determined; he’s encouraging the spread of digital culture, which also

implies renewing Public Administration. I have no doubt about this whatsoever. It’s not like before.

Maria Pia Rossignaud

“Italy will go digital with Renzi”

paolo coppolaDEPUTy oF ThE DEMoCRATIC PARTy AND PRoFESSoR oF CoMPUTER SCIENCE

In our country, we don’t fully grasp the meaning of the digital domain. We won’t get anywhere until the majority of people (including our leaders) continue to connect it solely to the computer. Fast, clear, “digital”, that’s how Paolo Coppola sums up the relationship between culture and technology in Italy. On education, he points out: “Despite all its excellence, our education system is not yet equipped to adequately deal with the knowledge economy. There’s a lack of training programmes for developing skills, collaborative working, creativity and lateral thinking. Computer literacy is now redundant: kids no longer need that. This is the problem.

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ICT in Italy, a market worth 100 bn per year (5-8% of GDP)

The EIT - European Institute of Innovation and Technology - was cre-ated to answer the need to increase Europe’s competitiveness on the

market. While Europe does indeed have several worldwide centres of excel-lence developing technological knowledge through research in many fields, it has less capacity than other regions such as the US and East Asia to con-vert that knowledge into business, through the process called innovation.

There are a number of examples of European excellence in developing knowledge, such as high-definition television, MPEG and the Web itself, which were strongly rooted in European innovation but did not translate into a competitive advantage for Europe.

The European Parliament founded the EIT in 2008 as one of the agen-cies of the European Union and set up three calls to address three knowledge domains (KIC: Knowledge Innovation Communities) it considered strate-gic: climate, energy and ICT. In 2009, these KIC saw several competing consortia (including industry, universities, research centres), among which one consortia per KIC was selected, with activities beginning in 2010.

For the ICT domain, the EIT ICT Labs were born - with five Partner aggregation Nodes, in Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, Paris and Stockholm respectively - and three associated ones: Budapest, London and Trento.

Roberto SaraccoEIT ICT Labs Italy

Trento Node Director


technologicalinnovation

e it ict labsICT in Italy, a market worth 100 bn per year (5-8% of GDP)

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technologicalinnovation

Despite limited initial budget of 4.5 million euro, activities kicked off behind the scenes over the course of 2010, growing over the course of 2011 and reaching increasingly industrial proportions in 2012.

In 2011, there was a call to transform one of the three associated Nodes into a Node and the aggregate consortium of Trento won the bid to become the 6th Node. In 2014, the six nodes became seven as London joined them.

ICT is of key value to 21st century Society, both in its own right as a generator of products and services impacting the GDP by several percent-age points (6% for Europe according to the European Digital Agenda; a current 1% for Italy and up to 7% in 2020 according to an estimate by Bocconi University/Oxford Economics and European Digital agenda). ICT acts both as an enabling factor for other sectors and as a system supporting almost all sectors - from eGovernment to trade, from logistics to cities, from transportation to production manufacturing, education to entertainment.

Its overall impact is expected to grow further: it is estimated that ap-propriate use of ICT is capable of optimizing a country’s system accounting for as much as 5-8% of the GDP, that’s around 100 billion/annum in Italy alone – according to a European Digital agenda 2020 estimate.

Indeed, it’s the pervasiveness of ICT which makes it an essential ele-ment for innovation in all sectors, bringing increased efficiency, releasing

eiT icT labs iTaly

berlinEindhoven

HelsinkiParis

stockholmLondon Trento

e it ict labs

The eIT - europeAn InSTITuTe of InnovATIon And Technology - WAS creATed To AnSWer The need To IncreASe europe’S coMpeTITIveneSS on The MArkeT.


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resources for reinvestment and increasing citizens’ well-being, both directly in the form of new services and indirectly through lower costs and a higher quality of life.

Over the course of its (roughly) fifty years’ lifetime, ICT developed at the pace of the first electronic components (Moore’s Law, doubling capacity every 18 months), chips, and then together with the capacity of networks to expand and pervade (Metcalfe’s Law, doubling network ca-pacity every 16 months). This evolution is not only likely to continue over the next ten years, but is influencing evolution in many other fields, like bioengineering, where the parallel use of ICT brings even higher rates of evolution (genome sequencing improves by doubling performance every 10 months).

EIT ICT Labs are therefore part of a field that is on the one hand ex-tremely promising in terms of ongoing evolution, and on the other hand - due to its speed and pervasiveness, implies huge competitive challenges. The global evolution and market speed dynamics are higher than in other sectors.

This is why the EIT ICT Labs’ activity planning cycles are annual: there is a one-year timeframe to move from research results to innovation to con-struction and market deployment.

Obviously, that’s not starting from scratch but from a wealth of knowl-edge and often prototype results that EIT ICT Labs partners contribute and which also condition these very activities.

Each year the EIT has a certain amount of funds to devote to 3 KIC (which will become 5 in 2015, 7 in 2017 and 8 in 2019). Part of the fund-ing is attributed on a competitive base, looking at results achieved in the previous year and the soundness of the business plan. So far the differences among the three KICs were only very slight - less than 2% - proof excellence in all three KICs.

Activities are planned according to a Strategic Innovation Agenda, re-fined and retuned

by the year-end. The Strategic Innovation Agenda is the basis of the call for proposals published in April, which draws over a hundred proposals from partners. The latter come together dynamically to tackle an innova-tion topic.

Proposals are reviewed by external and internal experts and then selected on the basis of their quality and market impact by the Management Com-mittee before the end of June. This enables the definition of the following year’s business plan that goes in for assessment and approval by the EIT, which allocates funds in December. The process is managed in such a way as to enable activities to kick off on January 1st.

The EIT funds all that’s needed to turn semi-finished products resulting from research activities by partners over the previous years or which they are in the process of developing into market innovation, with a ratio of past partner investment to EIT investment of around 75/25.

Innovation follows three axes: Education, Research and Innovation (the EIT labels).

Education focuses on creating a new entrepreneurial class by investing in young people with high potential selected through a competitive process for a two-year Master’s or three-year Doctoral school. The course is attended at

ITS overAll IMpAcT IS expecTed To groW furTher:

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AccounTIng for AS Much AS 5-8% of The gdp…

eiT icT labs iTaly

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different Nodes of the co-located universities, in Trento for the Italian Node. Students attend the Node and co-located companies taking part in EIT ICT Labs projects.

Research enables innovation to be generated by completing research activities with a market focus. Research activities are selected through the competitive process described above.

Innovation is based on around thirty Business Developers, 5 of which are based at the Italian Node. Their mission is to scout SMEs and innovative start-ups to accompany into the European and global markets, supporting the transfer of technology, patents, busi-ness models and access to financial backing.

EIT ICT Labs Italy consists of 14 partners representing excellence across the domestic fields of ICT, both terms of education, development, operations and application. It is a system in its own right, capable of managing the complete process from conception to fruition by collaborating on a par with the strongest European EIT ICT Labs member companies.

The operational core of the Italian Node is in Trento, home of the co-location centre - or CLC - which was joined in March 2014 by the Milan satellite.

This is where supported companies are hosted. From here, contacts with the local area and other Nodes are nurtured and the Italian Node’s strategy is developed.

This must be in line with EIT ICT Labs strategies but there is scope for focusing ac-tivities locally and for creating links with innovative contexts in Italy.

The Italian Node’s first priority is to invest in security and privacy, in Identity Man-agement, as a prerequisite to the Internet of Everything, in Urban Life and Mobility, Future Cloud for aspects pertaining to Open and Big Data, in Smart Spaces and future networks, and particularly the Software Defined Network with the aim of enhancing quality of life. Obviously, the Italian Partner Node also takes part in all other fields of expertise selected by EIT ICT Labs. The priorities identified are those with the greatest focus and in which investment is being made in order to identify whether to create es-sential elements to promote aggregation and encourage other EIT ICT Labs Partners to join Italian Node operations.

Education research innovation


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The operATIonAl core of The ITAlIAn node IS

In TrenTo, hoMe of The co-locATIon cenTre

- or clc - WhIch WAS joIned In MArch 2014

by The MIlAn SATellITe.

Having the Province of Trento as part of the Italian EIT ICT Labs eco-system is essential. Indeed, the Province of Trento, has long been investing in innovation, particularly ICT: over 80 Ml during the five-year period be-tween 2012 and 2016. Their sensitivity to innovation aspects is a stimu-lus for the entire region and thus experimentation and a growing digital economy are the result.

The new satellite launched in Milan is now equally important due to the link it provides with the Lombardy region and with EXPO 2015. This ecosystem houses the greatest innovation density in Italy and important investments with effects that will last well beyond 2015.

As mentioned, ICT requires an evolving context of processes in order to yield the benefits expected. It is also a means of increasing process efficiency. In many cases, evolution in process requires changes to the regulatory land-scape. Once again, the Province of Trento’s role is essential. This was clearly demonstrated in the Open Data field.

The Italian Node embraces Italy as a whole, with strong presence in Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany, where some of our partners have important bases. Through the CNR, coverage of the Italian territory is expanded even further.

A key aspect is that the Italian Node addresses the entire Italian ICT domain, providing tangible support in its development at European and global levels. It is does not address partners alone. On the contrary, this sup-port must be considered as facilitating direct and indirect competitiveness in ICT.

A community of interests and knowledge convergence are objectives that should be shared and this is also the ethic behind the collaboration with Media Duemila. The intention is to foster a broader awareness of what EIT ICT Labs Italy are engaged in and what it can do nationwide for Italy.

The next pages will provide an in-depth look at aspects mentioned in this introduction. Our starting point is the Italian Node, which will lead us to focus on three areas: Education, Research and Innovation”.

StoccolmaMadrid budapest

eiT icT labs iTaly

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Public & Private working togetherThe birth of the Italian Node of EIT ICT Labs is linked to a number

of Italian partners - mainly from Trento –taking part in the 2009 EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) call for the creation of the so-called KICs (“Knowledge and Innovation Communities “). These are pan-European strategic partnerships for long-term innovation conceived as a response to the challenges of modern society. The EIT ICT Labs consortium was awarded the KIC on ICT (Information and Communication Technolo-gies) with the involvement of Italian partners, including the Bruno Kessler Foundation and University of Trento, which in 2010 founded the Trento RISE association (Research, Innovation and Education System).

Initially, Trento RISE joined EIT ICT Labs as Associate Partner, without yet having Node status at national level. Despite a limited role, the Italian partnership immediately distinguished itself by its high level of commitment, involvement and participation in EIT ICT Lab activities.

The Italian Node (EIT ICT Labs Italy) was officially created on January 1st 2012, after an internal competition within EIT ICT Labs with other Associate Partners, such as London (LITE, a consortium consisting of Im-perial College and UCL) and Budapest (ELTE, Eötvös Lorand University consortium consisting of Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, SZTAKI Institute, Cisco and GE Healthcare).

The success of the Italian initiative compared to the other contenders can be attributed to a number of factors, including:– The Italian team was significantly enriched with the addition of key partners

such as CNR, Engineering Informatica, Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, STMicroelectronics and Telecom Italia - convincingly succeeding in involving Italian ICT excellence.

– The Italian “Node” (to be capitalized everywhere) vision was based on the idea of paying particular attention to developing technologies and services able to improve the quality of life of individuals and communities.

– Involving not only excellent research centres, universities and companies but local territories, enhancing their ability to a) act as intermediaries for the needs of local citizens and express new demands for innovation, and b) serve as sites for experimenting and validating the innovative solutions developed by EIT ICT Labs in the field, with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders (end-users, their families, associations, entire com-munities, local government, etc.).

– Getting regional bodies linked to the various Italian partners to support and co-invest in EIT ICT Labs initiatives in Italy (for example, the Au-tonomous Province of Trento allocated 76 million euro over five years).Like all other Nodes of EIT ICT Labs, the Italian one also has a so-called

Co-location Centre (CLC), which is not only a physical space dedicated to managing the Node itself, but for meeting, sharing and teamwork involving everyone revolving around it: enterprises, entrepreneurs, students, researchers.

Fabio PianesiEIT ICT Labs Research Director

gian Mario Maggio EIT ICT Labs Italy Co-Location Centre Manager


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From 2012, the Italian Node’s activities and involvement in common projects within the EIT ICT Labs have increased overwhelmingly. In addition to the Co-Location Centre located in Trento, the Italian EIT ICT Labs Node recently set up a “satellite” centre lo-cated in Milan, which gravitates around the Node and focuses on innovation and research initiatives related to EXPO 2015.

PartnersItalian Node Partners include institutions and organizations, playing a leading role in

their field in ICT at national and international levels. At industry level, Telecom Italia (Core Partner), Italy’s largest telephony operator and

major player in the international arena; Engineering Informatica (Core Partner), the largest software company in Italy with strong international presence; STMicroelectron-ics (Affiliate Partner), a global leader in semiconductors and sensor-based systems (e.g. Embedded systems); Centro Ricerche FIAT (Affiliate Partner), a major player in the automotive and intelligent transportation fields; Reply (Affiliate Partner), cutting edge IT consultant and systems integrator active in various international markets with special-ized vertical industry divisions; Poste Italiane, the Italian Post Office (Affiliate Partner)

figure 1. The Italian

partner network. eiT iCT labS iTaly

aFFiliaTeD PaRTNeRS

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aN INNOVaTION saTELLITE IN MILaN

As of May 2014, the eIT IcT labs Italy ecosystem was enriched with an innovation centre in Milan, which will operate as a satellite to the co-location centre in

Trento. The satellite is hosted at cefrIel. Milan is one of the most dynamic centres in the Italian landscape – not only in economic terms - it also has a very high concentration of students in technical domains, and is a fertile incubation environment for start-ups. Milan will also host the 2015 universal expo, opening a window on innovation activities managed by eIT IcT labs in the fields of the future’s urban life and mobility, smart spaces and the cloud for the entire world to see. The Milan satellite works in close collaboration with the Trento co-location centre and with its strong partner network consisting of the top Italian IcT players in the fields of higher education, research and industry.

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eiT icT labs iTaly

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which, beyond its traditional post business, has integrated businesses such as banking, telecoms and logistics, along-side expertise in safety systems and a capillary penetration of the Italian territory. Finally, the Trentino Federation of Cooperatives (Affiliate Partner), with over 500 associates strongly rooted in Trentino and in “ICT-intensive” sectors such as retail, distribution and welfare and support services to individuals - provides the Italian Node with a “bridge” into small-medium enterprises using ICT.

As far as Research and Higher Education are concerned, the Italian Node comprises partners complementing each other well, each contributing their own specific know-how. Trento RISE (Core Partner), an association grouping the Trento region’s major research institutions (the Bruno Kes-sler Foundation, with over 300 researchers engaged in the ICT and Microsystems fields) and the University of Trento, the Department of Engineering and Computer Science (DISI) in particular. Politecnico di Milano (Affiliate Partner) and Politecnico di Torino (Affiliate Partner) are the two major technical Italian universities, widely recognized internationally for the excellent quality of their training and research, along with their demonstrated ability to transfer the knowledge they generate into the market. Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Affiliate Partner), the graduate school with an excellent track record for education, research and integration with business and the University of Bologna (Affiliate Partner), with university research and higher education in a wide range of scientific fields, including human science and economics. CNR (Affiliate Partner), Italy’s national research body, the player whose pres-ence at national level and whose diverse institutions strengthen the Italian Node on a nationwide scale. CEFRIEL (Affiliate Partner), the newest addition to the Italian Node team: a role model for ICT excellence, particularly in terms of transferring technology into and collaborating/consulting for enterprises.

The Italian Node’s FocusThrough its partners, the Italian Node active engages across all EIT ICT Labs In-

novation Areas or “Action Lines”, leveraging the specificities of its partnerships and its own local vocation to develop ICT solutions that improve quality of life on a day to

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r eply is a business consulting leader in applying new IcT technologies to deve-

lop innovative solutions. It is a consulting, Systems Integration and Application Mana-gement company, specializing in the design and implementation of solutions based on new communication channels and digital media. In the context of eIT IcT labs, re-ply’s activities are particularly focused on cyber Security & privacy.

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MASTER SCHOOL

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figure 2. distribution of assets of the node according to the Italian action lines of eIT IcT labs.


14 | N . 3 0 0 | Ju n e / Ju l y 2 0 1 4

day basis. We thus see considerable commitment in areas such as indi-vidual well-being and health, smart cities and mobility. Another focus is on Privacy, Security and the Reliability of computer systems, for which the Italian Node holds the leadership at KIC level (by hosting its coordinator) as well as Big Data, with the latter theme cutting right across a variety of application areas.

Co-Location Center: Concept and ApplicationThrough its Nodes, EIT ICT Labs operates a pan-European network of

Co-Location Centres.They are the focal point for the KIC ecosystem (students, innovators,

partners, business developers, talents, start-ups, SMEs) in which ideas and technologies meet and interact, giving rise to the tangible realization of in-tegration between Higher Education, Research and Innovation/Business, according to the “Knowledge Triangle” paradigm promoted by the EIT.

The CLC is the hub of the entire KIC activity, stimulating mobility be-tween the Nodes, making people and ideas meet and leading to the extrac-tion of value.

In the future, EIT ICT Labs activities will be increasingly concentrated in the Co-Location Centres. This will be facilitated by the launch of the so-called “High Impact Initiatives” expected for 2014. Through an appropriate concentration of human and financial resources, these initiatives will develop ICT solutions meeting the specific challenges of modern society.

The Trento Co-Location Center is situated in the Povo technology hub, on the “high-tech” hill above Trento, which is the well- known location of the University, the ICT research centre and innovative companies (e.g. Semantic Valley consortium).

From the very beginning, the Italian Node designed and actively pro-moted a co-location policy for its partners – particularly industry partners

- within or in close proximity to the CLC, providing fa-cilities and organizing activities and events, stimulating the daily exchange of ideas, projects and vision, turning the Co-Location Center vision outlined above a reality.

With the active support of the Trento RISE partners - especially the FBK which houses the CLC - the co-loca-tion policy has resulted in a series of labs and facilities op-erated by and together with staff from partner companies such as Telecom Italia (SKIL lab - http://skil.telecomitalia.com/), Engineering (ESTRO lab), Poste Italiane (due to launch in 2014), CRF. The co-location policy has also extended to the Italian Node’s broader ecosystem, encour-aging medium-sized companies like GPI Research Centre and PointGrey to take part, further expanding the Italian Node’s appeal.

Finally, the Italian Node provides a range of on-site facilities for Business Acceleration and Internationaliza-tion (e.g. “Soft Landing”). In particular, temporary space

POsTE ITaLIaNE

poste Italiane, the Italian post service, is among the Italian economy’s main players (largest ser-

vices infrastructure) and has been investing in the field of cyber security and ICT technologies for a long time.They recently equipped their Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) with a research lab built in Trento in collaboration with TrentoRISE, FBk and the University of Trento, together with a technological district in Calabria - with a mission to realize R&D projects in ICT and cyber security. Poste’s involvement with EIT ICT Labs also facili-tates the application of scientific know-how built over the years to create products aimed at the market, training, research and industry.

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for companies from other EIT ICT Lab nodes planning to locate in Italy, supported by the Business Developer Team. For these companies, along-side the facilities, the Italian Node also provides active support for inclusion in the Italian socio-economic fabric, building relationships and interacting with stakeholders and local agencies (innovation agencies and incubators, legal, finance, etc.). Among the re-sults of this highly dynamic policy aimed at making the Trento CLC the focal point of the Node’s activities, it is worth mentioning increased opportunities for exchange, contamination and collaboration among innovators from different back-grounds and cultures. A greater impact on common participation in EIT ICT Lab activities, both in terms of quantity (number of activities involving Italian Node partners and players from the Italian ecosystem) and qual-ity (presence in particularly central fields, like geographical mobility, smart cities, people’s health and welfare, privacy and security). Local impact has increased. A more attractive, more qualified offering for EIT ICT Lab Mas-ter’s and Doctorate students attending Trento University, who find the CLC is the ideal environment to exercise and develop their talents and skills in innovation and entrepreneurship.

fInAlly, The ITAlIAn node provIdeS A rAnge of on-SITe fAcIlITIeS for buSIneSS AccelerATIon And InTernATIonAlIzATIon.

THE NaTIONaL REsEaRCH COUNCIL (CNR)

The CNR is Italy’s largest public research body with overall scientific compe-tencies mandated to carry out, promote, transfer, evaluate and enhance

research in the major fields of knowledge, applying results to scientific, cultural, technological, economic and social development in Italy within a framework of Euro-pean cooperation and integration.The CNR scientific network consists of 107 schools, distributed in 7 Departments with around 8,000 employees. Its highly multidisciplinary nature distinguishes the CNR from all other national research institutions and it ranks among the largest at international level. R&D activities in ICT are conducted primarily in the Department of "Engineering, ICT and Technology for Energy and Transport (DI-ITET)" which conducts scientific activity in priority areas for the Country’s innovation, which is applied to many industrial sectors. In the field of EIT ICT Labs, innovation projects are focused on areas such as Cyber Physical Systems, Health and Well-being, Cloud Future, Future Networking Solutions, Privacy, Security & Trust, Smart Energy Systems, Smart Spaces.

sTMICROELECTRONICs

STMicroelectronics is one of the larg-est semi-conductor companies in

the world. With revenues in excess of 8 billion dollars in 2013, it offers one of the broadest product portfolios in the industry and provides customers with innovative solutions for a wide range of electronic applications.Traded on the New york, Paris and Milan stock exchanges, ST is a global company with deep Italian and French roots that has continuously invested in Research and Innovation.In EIT ICT Labs Italy, ST takes part in the research activities contributing to the in-novation domains of Smart Spaces, Privacy Security and Trust and Smart Energy Systems.


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The co-location policy developed by the Italian Node has been extended to the newly established Milan satellite. An integral part of the Trento Co-Location Centre, the Milan facility will include Politecnico di Milano, Tel-ecom Italia and its JOL lab, CEFRIEL, Reply and Fondazione Politecnico with the future potential addition of STMicroelectronics.

The Business Development teamAnother key component of the Italian Node is the Business Development

(BD) team, which consists of 5 Business Developers linking the Italian ter-ritory, the EIT ICT Labs partnership as a whole and Europe. They belong to the EIT ICT Labs Business Development Accelerator comprising of a number of groups of BD within each of the EIT ICT Lab nodes, includ-ing associate partners in Madrid and Budapest. Together, they form a vast European network dedicated to extraction value from partner assets and the broader ecosystem surrounding the various nodes and the growth of entre-preneurship from a European perspective. The Business Development team is EIT ICT Labs’ means of integrating results from the Action Lines, local ecosystems and large enterprises. By Leveraging the KIC partner network, Business Developers look for, select and support start-ups and SMEs in achieving maturity from a European standpoint (400 assessed in 2013. 70 selected and supported directly).

With high-calibre professional Business Developers, the Italian team pro-vides a range of services to EIT ICT Labs companies, researchers, innovators as well as start-ups and SMEs from our ecosystem: Business modelling support; Plan development and execution for technology transfer; Strategic coaching by developing and implementing strategies for corpo-

rate growth and/or market entry; Support in accessing investment capital Soft Landing: easing cross-Node location of the EIT ICT Labs company

ecosystem It actively takes part and plays a key role in the EIT ICT Labs outreach

program, involving SMEs and start-ups from Central and Eastern European

ENGINEERING

engineering is a global player and premier

system integration group in Italy, a leading provider of integrated, comprehensive offerings covering the entire value chain of software: design, development, outsourcing services, proprietary vertical solutions and products, IT and strategic consulting customized to the business models of customers across all markets.About 7,300 IT specialists, 40 sites distributed in Italy, belgium, Serbia, South America (brazil and Argentina) and the united States. engineering has a consolidated presence on all vertical markets and operates through four business units: finance, public Administration & healthcare, Telco & utilities, Industry & Services, supported by cross-business unit centres of competence and by the research & Innovation department, which with its 250 resources, has the dual role of promoting research on software at an international level and transferring innovation to the production cycle of the business structures.

CEFRIEL

cefriel, has operated as a Center of Excellence for Innovation, Research and Education in ICT since 1988. CEFRIEL’s primary objective is strengthening the

links between the academic and business worlds in this field. Its partners are Universities (Politecnico di Milano, the University of Milan, the University of Milano Bicocca, the University of Insubria), Public bodies (the Lombardy Region), and 15 major multinationals in the ICT and media fields. From 2014, the Milan Satellite is located on CEFRIEL premises, benefitting from close links with the nearby Po-litecnico di Milano campus. Innovation projects conducted by CEFRIEL in the EIT ICT Labs contexts focus on EXPO 2015 and on aspects of Urban Life and Mobility, Smart Spaces and Future Cloud.

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countries in the KIC and its nodes’ activities. This includes using the tools mentioned above to facilitate growth and implanting these companies onto the Italian territory.

Territorial LabsOne of the Italian Node’s key ideas to further consolidate emphasis on

local territories is the Territorial Labs. Derived as an evolution and exten-sion of the European Living Labs, these local resources provide developers and innovators with a permanent pool of users, stakeholders, infrastructure and local data, alongside experts able to deploy such resources. Their aim is to: 1) serve as validation platforms for applications and services destined for public and citizens’ use, both in terms of the added value they bring to individual users and as business models; 2) provide an appropriate context to understand and address the potential impact on organizational aspects and regional governance; 3) help market tested solutions through a permanent showcase and real-life testimonials (users involved); 4) attract further invest-ment to stimulate local entrepreneurship. These concepts and guidelines have been implemented in the Italian Node by Trento RISE Territorial Lab (Smart Crowds - [http://www.smartcrowds.net] - Trento and H&WB Ter-ritorial Lab - [http://www.trentorise.eu/en/health-wellbeing-territorial-lab]), spanning areas such as services and applications for Welfare and Health and the widest range of smartphone and cell phone-based services.

The Trento Territorial Labs continue to play a key role in developing this innovation model within EIT ICT Labs. One of the tools the KIC provides innovators with is support for Experimenting Technologies and Services. When these activities involve validation through real-life us-ers, they are designed and executed by the Territorial Labs at the KIC. Thanks also to encouragement and support from the Trento Territorial Labs, EIT ICT Labs has developed specific policies relating to the ser-vices they deliver, also covering applicable quality standards. The result is a pan-European network of Territorial Labs capable of offering highly professional, user-centred service validation in all KIC co-location centre countries, with uniform standards and procedures.

TELECOM ITaLIa

Telecom Italia is Italy’s

leading Telco, offering

landline, mobile, public

and Ip telephony services,

Internet and cable

television on its domestic

market and abroad.

At Telecom Italia, r&d

is conducted by the

Information Technology

functions - TIlab and

Innovation - which

oversee the analysis of

new technologies and

engineering activities

for services offered to

customers.

In order to foster an

innovative system

of relations between

companies and

universities, Telecom

Italia has adopted the

joint open lab (jol)

model, real-life, common

labs where research and

academic knowledge

combine with industrial

know-how and experience.

In 2013, seven new

laboratories were opened,

which joined the jol SkIl

(Semantics knowledge &

Innovation lab) launched

in Trento during the first

half of 2011 and

co-located with

eIT IcT labs.

sMaRT CROWDs

Smart Crowds is a Trento rISe initiative aimed getting citizens involved in

research and technological innovation processes for services they will utilize as end-users. citizens are given the oppor tun i ty to vo luntar i l y tes t IcT technology prototypes or to actively be a part of their conception and design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im4FSb0-iEM


18 | N . 3 0 0 | Ju n e / Ju l y 2 0 1 4

It takes the right mix of players, activities and conditions specific to a certain context for innovation to be driven forward successfully. Because innovation is aimed at a

global competitive context in which it is born and developed, it is also subject to very tight timelines, windows of opportunity within which action needs to be taken.

This mix of ingredients is managed at KIC level through day-to-day work which sometimes crystallizes into a plan and in other cases is concretely put into action on a weekly basis.

During the planning phase, context evolution is analysed, together with the strengths offered by the EIT ICT Labs Partnership on the one hand, and on the other, overall positioning with respect to European strategies. As the latter turn into action plans and research funding and make up the evolution of the regulatory framework, they need to

be exploited and taken into account.The three-year Strategic Plan 2014-2016 (SIA: Strategic Innova-

tion Agenda —[http://www.eitictlabs.eu/news-events/news/article/eit-ict-labs-strategic-innovation-agenda- 2014-2106/]) was released with the approval of the Executive Steering Board and the Assembly at the close of 2013, becoming the reference document for planning and executing activities during the 2014-2016 period.

As previously shown, funding for innovation activities has increased over time, reaching around 50 billion in 2014 (for a total of 73.4 bil-lion). This equates to a significant deployment of funds when one con-siders that for every invested by EIT ICT Labs approximately 4 more are invested in these activities by Partners, meaning total available re-sources of around 250 billion . In overall human terms, about 2,000 people are involved.

Funds are allocated through an annual, which begins at the end of March and closes in mid-May. After a selection phase - which takes into account the value of proposals, their potential impact and the overall portfolio cre-ated - comes the construction of the business plan for the following year and its submission to the EIT which assesses it on its merits and in relation to the other two KICs. Budget allocation for the following year is reached through a competitive process. Activities officially kick-off in January of the following year. However, as they are often based on past activities and re-sults obtained by partners, they are in fact a continuation of ongoing activi-ties, harmonized and given a specific direction and market objective. When building these proposals, it is crucial to involve the Business Developers (see related article) who assess market opportunities at a European level and provide connections to various stakeholders, making it possible to acquire specific technologies, for example by involving start-ups.

Involving stakeholders has become a fundamental element for building the Action Plan and creates one of the points of contact with the local area. The Italian Node devotes particular attention to involvement with the local territory. For example, through our Partner, the University of Bologna, we

Involving & contaminating places and citizens Roberto Saracco

FI-PPP

In recent years, the need for an economy driven by Internet

technologies has emerged not only in the scientific community, but also in the business and industrial communities. EIT ICT Labs has es-tablished a strategic partnership with Fi-PPP, aiming to encourage the adoption of tomorrow’s Internet technologies by small-medium en-terprises (SMEs), for public adminis-tration and individuals, with the aim of creating innovative new compa-nies and new job opportunities. In the context of EIT ICT Labs, FI-PPP operates through an ecosystem of test-beds located in Berlin, Trento, Madrid and Sophia Antipolis. FI-PPP supports about 25 small-medium companies in using a variety of ser-vices over the course of a year.

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figure 1. SIA – value creation engine

Summer Schools

University Programmes

education

Technology Experimentation & Technology Maturation

PhD/Master Theses

Research

Access to finance

Business Development Accelerator

I&E Programmes

business

action lines – innovation

Health & Wellbeing

Cyber-Physical Systems

Smart Energy Systems

Future Urban Life & Mobility

Smart Spaces

Future Networking Solutions

Future Cloud

Privacy, Security & Trust

action lines – Schools

Master School

Doctoral School

Professional School

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have involved regional government in activities in the transport computerization domain. In Lombardy we are developing an important initiative focused on the EXPO 2015 ecosystem. In the Trento Region, through Trento RISE, the Trentino Federation of Cooperatives and the involvement of local start-ups, we are developing innovative actions in the field of retail. In addition, the Trento node collaborates on projects for educational innovation and experi-mentation of results from EIT ICT Labs together with the Buonarroti Institute in Trento and MUSE, the Natural Science Museum of Trento. The latter is the ideal place to involve large segments of the local population as well as visitors passing through.

EIT ICT Labs innovation activities are grouped into 8 fields, as shown in the figure 2 (insert reference). They are all connected with advanced education activities and with supporting small-medium enterprises and start-ups. Indeed - as stated elsewhere in this publication – if this rapidly evolving world requires investment in order to transform

Europe’s needs and opportunities

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20 | N . 3 0 0 | Ju n e / Ju l y 2 0 1 4

3CIXTy

3Cixty is an initiative that stands out due to the

depth of its impact as it pro-vides data that can be used by third parties to build a variety of applications, sup-porting innovative entrepre-neurship in start-ups on the one hand and promoting the availability of services for citizens on the other.

3cixty offers a basic plat-form and services ecosystem that provide complete and di-verse types of information on the city and mobility. during World expo 2015, Milan will be an ideal platform from which to showcase achieve-ments and experience lever-aging millions of visitors from all over the world. To demon-strate the platform’s effec-tiveness, Apps for citizens and visitors to the city will be created both by the pro-jects themselves or through an App challenge organized by politecnico di Milano. The project is developed through collaboration between the partners of eIT IcT labs ger-many, france and Italy.

research results into market innovation, we also need to train new entrepre-neurs so as to ensure Europe’s future innovation and help those already in the field creating innovation through their own companies.

Pooling these three elements (Research, Entrepreneurial Education and Business) increases the impact of EIT ICT Labs. Activities aimed at innova-tion can be applied and marketed through companies with existing market presence. In turn, enterprises on the market can provide important elements for building innovation based on targeted activities funded by EIT ICT Labs. These are ultimately the ideal terrain in which to train our Masters and PhD students, connecting them to market reality and enabling them to gain valuable experience straight from the field.

The 8 investment fields were selected based on external criteria (in which Europe has set its priorities) and on the basis of internal considerations (where EIT ICT Labs Partners are particularly strong and where their in-vestment plans focus resources). The entire world is evolving rapidly and all commodity sectors, products, services and processes/value chains are in-volved. As a product/service accounting for 6% of Europe’s GDP, ICT is an almost ubiquitous enabling factor. According to studies from various macroeconomic analysis centres - including Harvard and Imperial College – its impact could reach 8% of the total GDP as it is capable of deploying investments to a number of sectors far greater than those specific to ICT.

In Italy, for example, with an ICT market worth about 60 billion a year (telecoms, entertainment, and process support software), the impact on the GDP is estimated at around 120 billion, which is twice as much. This ratio is applicable throughout Europe. In the Digital Agenda 2020 report, the European Community estimates ICT’s potential impact on economies such as Spain and Italy at over 100 billion.

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Although the 8 selected fields are not exhaustive compared to where ICT can be applied and can have impacts, they neverthe-less represent a significant part of the overall context. It should also be noted that each covers a very broad spectrum of topics, perhaps too large to be addressed with sufficient critical mass. This is why in 2013 EIT ICT Labs

decided to identify a maximum of two to three priority areas and channel investments into these from 2015, guaranteeing them the necessary critical mass.

For the same reasons, the 2015 Activity Plan will include long-standing High Impact Initiatives on the evolution of European in-dustry and on the lives of European citizens. These High Impact Initiatives cover different fields and will be described later.

We will now provide some detail on the 8 innovation fields, start-ing with the three that are across the board, moving on to the five others that cater for vertical markets, describing the objectives and focus of each.For specific activities carried out in 2013 and ongoing in 2014, please see the accompanying box.

PLayFUL LEaRNING ON THE CLOUD

The project develops innovative tools for children with cognitive dis-abilities (e.g. autism spectrum) in order to enrich the therapeutic/

educational approach, making activities more exciting and engaging for young patients. There are two main products: the Magic Lamp and a set of games using "full body" inter-action with medium to large displays. The Magic Lamp transforms an ordinary desk lamp into a learning tool and game. Using physical objects mimicking typical sound device icons ("play", "stop", "pause"), children can interact with images drawn on a sheet of paper,

record voices and sounds, associate them to drawings and listen to them repeatedly. The Magic Lamp uses an integrated camera that detects the child's actions and is connected to a computer which interprets them. The thera-peutic-educational games enable children to use their body to interact with remote multi-media content on a screen (animated objects or virtual characters). Gestures and movements in space are identified by position and motion sensors. The games are highly customizable to meet the specific needs of each individual child. Both products have been meticulously tested in treatment centres and through the support of EIT ICT Labs. A variety of go to market strategies are being explored for these innovations.

REaL TIME sECURITy sHIELD

Mobile security is the secu-rity market segment with

the highest growth rate in the industry. It’s an essential com-ponent of the european tele-coms infrastructure and mo-bile operators. At eIT IcT labs, mobile security is addressed through the framework of real-Time security shield ac-tivities. by combining the skills of eIT IcT labs partners its aim is to develop a fraud detection service while ensuring the pri-vacy of communications over mobile devices.


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What are the employment prospects in the Information and Communication Tech-nology (ICT) field for the coming years? How many jobs are available in Italy and

in Europe, in a crisis such as this? What types of careers are accessible and what are the skills required?

These questions (and many more) are dramatically topical in Italy and in Europe at a time when overall unemployment – and young unemployment in particular – are reach-ing worryingly high levels (in Italy, unemployment is at 13% and young unemployment 42,3%, Italian National Institute of Statistics - Istat data, April 2014). These are there-fore also essential issues in activities connected to training at the EIT ICT Labs European consortium.

ICT is interdisciplinary, and by definition permeates a great number of production sectors.

For example: healthcare, government, energy, enterprise services and manufac-turing. By contrast with previous data, recent surveys in Italy and Europe actually predict a lack of skilled personnel, in other words of ICT graduates, up to about 500,000 in 2015 and up to 1.3 million in 2020 (see Figure 1). Absurdly, at a criti-cal time for young employment in Europe we don’t have and won’t have enough graduates to meet the internal demand of European companies and public admin-istration.

It is however also interesting to analyse the structural change in profiles and skills required by the new job families and ICT sector businesses. Changes to the way occu-pations are classified introduced in 2011 with ISCO-081, make it possible to monitor and estimate employment profiles with a new level of granularity for the first time. Between 2011 and 2012 we were able to measure important changes to the overall ICT workforce profile. A change indicating a structural shift towards increasingly sen-ior specialised professional profiles such as the systems architect and analyst. There is also increased demand for cross-functional skills such as management, business and entrepreneurial culture in general. Indeed, whereas the overall ICT sector grew by

Potential 21st century employment: the skills required

Maurizio Marchese Professor University of TrentoEducation coordinator EIT ICT Labs Italy

1 ISCO: International Standard Classification of Occupations.

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1.8% between 2011 and 2012 in terms of its workforce, this increase depends on the specific job profile.

In particular (see Figure 2A): job levels associated with management, business, architecture and systems analysis

increased by 8.5%; advanced programmer levels (ICT practitioners) by 3.7%; High-school graduate level lost 3.9%, of which 2.5% for programmers (core ICT

practitioners) and up to 5.1% for industrial engineers.

This trend is expected to keep growing in the coming years. In line with the stand-ard scenarios (i.e. the main and central scenario in figure 2), job types relating to man-agement, business, architecture and systems analysis are still expected to grow by 44% compared to 2011 in the 2011-2020 timeframe. Advanced professional-grade job offers (ISCO level 2) are expected to grow by 16%, with an ongoing decrease in more technical work mainly as a result of process automation, innovation, offshoring and productivity increase.

It is also important to emphasize that these forecasts of demand for qualified profiles and skills will not automatically lead to growth in the job market. Forecasts only reflect potential requests and are therefore fragile: open positions which do not successfully close year on year may simply disappear (projects not kicking off, proposals not submitted, innovation not deployed, etc.).

Entrepreneurial skills as a development factor for new entrepreneurship and employ-ability.

As we have seen, the demand for ICT skills continues to grow at a rapid pace. Over-all, despite the crisis, we have seen an ongoing creation of new jobs. We therefore need to find new ways and means of increasing the quantity and quality, and the pertinence of computer skills. The job market requires highly skilled professional profiles, with an increasing degree of skills such as decision-making and leadership, with entrepreneurial

2 EIT ICT Labs Strategic Innovation Agenda: Blended Life in a Connected World 2014-2016.

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figure 1. comparison of the number of places missing in the IcT sector in three different scenarios (empirical research and skills for jobs in europe february 2014).


24 | N . 3 0 0 | Ju n e / Ju l y 2 0 1 4

Source: Calculations based on Eurostat LFS data. Some imputations and assumptions apply. figure 2A

Management, business architecture and analysis

ICT practioners – professional level

ICT practioners – associate/technician

Industry and engineering ICT associate/technician

Total

3,7%

1,8%

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figure 2bSource: empirica forecast based on Eurostat LFS data.

Management, business architecture and analysis

ICT practioners – professional level

ICT practioners – associate/technician

Industry and engineering ICT associate/technician

Total

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culture. In parallel, the pace of change seems to keep increasing in the field of ICT and new profiles continue to emerge.

Many of these professions do not match jobs exclusive to the ICT field, but they re-quire cross-functional competencies - such as knowledge of marketing, business models, communication – in order to effectively support existing companies, newly created busi-nesses or start-ups in novel processes and innovation.

It is now indeed clear that newly-established entrepreneurship (start-ups) will play a key role in generating new employment in the coming years, while large enterprises are “consolidating” - if not reducing - their number of employees.

IT IS noW Indeed cleAr ThAT neWly-

eSTAblIShed enTrepreneurShIp

(STArT-upS) WIll plAy A key role

In generATIng neW eMployMenT

In The coMIng yeArS, WhIle lArge

enTerprISeS Are “conSolIdATIng” - If noT reducIng

- TheIr nuMber of eMployeeS.

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The challenge of a world of renewed entrepreneurship can and must be taken both as a great opportunity for the birth of new jobs in a variety of sectors, and for the development of new educational approaches beyond the traditional ICT study programmes. Today, op-portunity and necessity are creating the ideal terrain for trying out education methods, novel ways of organizing educational offerings, as well as testing updated curricula.

EIT ICT Labs Initiatives in ICT Education to develop entrepreneurial skills

The challenge is to be able to train an adequate number of professionals in the ICT field. In order to succeed in this, there is definitely a need for structural initiatives at a national and European level based on both a correct, more engaging school orientation and on growing the educational offering of Universities. Advanced education strategy within the EIT ICT Labs has on the other hand focused on exploring innovation both in terms of methodology and contents for training programs at master and doctorate levels. The focus is therefore mainly on the innovative dimension and on course quality improvement rather than on the number of students (for which the structural measures mentioned above are necessary).

To this end, current EIT ICT Labs initiatives in ICT Education reflect an innova-tive approach aiming to provide flexible, blended learning paths for the new “technical entrepreneur” professional profiles. This approach is about training fresh talent able to combine deep skills and knowledge in a technical environment with extensive skills linked to innovation and entrepreneurial culture: the so-called “T-shaped” talents. This type of profile refers to professionals who share many traits with those described above - for example Cyber-Security Engineer, Big Data Analyst, Interaction Designer, Cyber-physical Architect, Urban Systems Architect, e-Health Architect et al. They ac-tually have deep expertise in specific technical domains along with cross-cutting com-petencies in business, communication and teamwork.

In particular, over the past few years, EIT ICT Labs has launched two new key initia-tives linked to new Masters and PhD programs. These initiatives are intended as an ex-ample of renewal in the European training curricula in order to stimulate entrepreneurial culture and internationalization.

The chAllenge IS To be Able To TrAIn An AdequATe nuMber of profeSSIonAlS In The IcT fIeld.

aLMa MaTER sTUDIORUM – THE UNIVERsITy OF bOLOGNa

Three words sum up research at the university of bologna: international, interdisciplinary and excellence. Its competitiveness is underscored by results: 11,000 products developed

on average each year, a portfolio of 200 patents, over e 91M at European level: in the seventh framework programme the Alma Mater was recognized as the first Italian university in terms of funding received, according to a EU report in August 2013. The University of Bologna has also demonstrated strong bonds with its regional territory, thanks to the seven Inter-departmental Centres for industrial Research (with projects ranging from the food industry to mechanics to ICT, from industrial materials and eco-design to safety and energy efficiency), but also at national level, by taking part in six of the eight National Technological Clusters of the Italian Ministry of Education.Some of the focus areas of the University of Bologna in the kIC ICT: Cyber-Physical Systems, Future Cloud, Smart Spaces, Urban Life and Mobility.


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Specifically:the EIT ICT Labs Master School is a new portfolio of Masters programmes (the

Italian Laurea Magistrale) offered by a consortium of leading European Universi-ties and Polytechnics - a total of over 20 Universities members of EIT ICT Labs.

Programmes cover emerging ICT fields such as Service Design and Engineering, Security and Privacy, Internet Technologies and Architectures, Human Computer Interaction and Design, Embedded Systems, Data Media Technologies and Distrib-uted Systems.

The programs integrate a number of innovative features into their syllabus, such as:(i) geographical mobility (students have the opportunity to attend two European

universities during the course of their two- year Master’s degree);(ii) a high-level, intensive program of courses on enterprise and technological in-

novation - the so-called Innovation & Entrepreneurship Minor - which introduces elements such as business plan development, market analysis, teamwork in Inter-national and distributed environments to the students’ competencies;

(iii) participation in events organized within the European consortium such as summer schools, winter schools, international competitions and specialist work-shops;

(iv) a final thesis project carried out in one of the EIT ICT Labs consortium’s companies, such as Nokia, Siemens, Philips, Telecom Italia, SAP et al.

Students taking part in these programs can thus acquire in-depth, hands-on skills at the cutting edge of scientific and technological domains, studying and working in international environments (roughly half the students at EIT ICT Labs are non-European) at close quarters with research, innovative and industrial business initiatives - as interns at industrial research centres, in ideas competitions, start-up incubators etc. To date, about 300 European students are on the first edition of this programme. The goal is to get it up to speed with about 500-600 students involved in the EIT ICT Labs Master School programme.

The EIT ICT Labs Doctoral School is a new PhD level programme shared by a number of PhD Universities that are members of EIT ICT Labs.

The goAl IS To geT IT up

To Speed WITh AbouT 500-

600 STudenTS Involved In The

eIT IcT lAbS MASTer School

progrAMMe.

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The program has been added alongside excellent existing doctorate programmes and – also in this case - aims to support and enhance the entrepreneurial culture and know-how of doctorate students following technical/scientific paths.

Doctorate students enrolled at the consortium’s Doctorate Schools may apply to be selected for the EIT ICT Labs Doctoral School which includes:(i) an extensive course program on enterprise and technological innovation covering

topics linked to creativity, recognizing business opportunities in the field of technol-ogy, developing business models and ideas and management of intellectual property in technological research;

(ii) geographical mobility of up to six months for doctoral students in one of the nodes and within the network of research centres and industries of the EIT ICT Labs European consortium;

(iii) financial support upon completion of the doctorate course for an experience of entre-preneurship that can take place either in a European company or in a start-up incubator.The ultimate goal is always preparing the next generation of highly qualified re-sources, both in technological and management fields, capable of meeting the needs of existing and future enterprises. But it is also to boost the regional ecosystems with new entrepreneurship.

The eIT IcT lAbS MASTer School IS A neW porTfolIo of MASTerS progrAMMeS (The ITAlIAn lAureA MAgISTrAle).

sCUOLa sUPERIORE saNT’aNNa

The Scuola Superiore Sant’anna is a special-statute public university operating in the field of applied sciences: Economics and Management, Law, Political Science, Agricul-

tural Sciences and Biotechnology, Medical Sciences and Industrial and Information Engineering. 110 professors and researchers live and interact with over 800 students in a continuous cultural and intellectual exchange.

This gives rise to innovative ideas, developed in collaboration with universities, institutions, companies and research institutes abroad. 14.5M in research funds, of which about 3M from commissioned research and 5.6M in funding from the EU and international organizations. Fur-thermore, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna currently has 116 active patents and has generated 41 Spin-Offs.


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Supporting Innovation, especially when driven by start-ups. This is the work I’ve been doing for over a year at the Italian node of the EIT ICT

Labs in my capacity as a Business Developer. It may seem like a slightly abused term. If I look at my list of LinkedIn connections, I see a plethora of Business Developers, also including people with blatantly technical profiles. But then again -regardless of our specific position within a com-pany - we Italians like to think that whatever our role, we’re contributing to the development of the company’s business and are therefore all a bit Business Developer-like. That said, the Business Developer title perfectly fits my role at the EIT ICT Labs.

In a nutshell, the BD (Business Developer) tries to make the company’s market grow. In line with the EIT’s mission, this growth needs to happen on a European scale, so that it has a magnitude that is able to compete with a globalized market: it’s clear that no matter how strong and innova-tive a company is, if it stays within its own borders, sooner or later it runs the risk of being copied and overtaken by a competitor offering the same solutions on a broader international scale. We try to take leverage a Eu-ropean networking of over 30 BD distributed across 9 countries (7 “core” and 2 “affiliate” nodes) to overcome those precise difficulties arising from a fragmented European market.

In practical terms, we are proper developers of new Business opportuni-ties, “on loan” to the companies gravitating around the EIT ICT Labs with the mandate of facilitating and supporting their growth internationally.

One could argue that the single European market already exists thanks to the Schengen Agreement. This definitely helped and con-tinues to do so, but it applies mainly to large companies. It’s not so obvious when it comes to SMEs and start-ups. Let’s draw a parallel


➔eIf

➔connecTIon WITh The AcTIon lIneS

➔open InnovATIon funnel

➔InnovATIon-reSeArch-buSIneSS

➔SupporT To STudenTS Who WAnT To becoMe enTrepreneurS / hoW creATe A STArTup / hoW To Apply TechnIcAl knoWledge In The buSIneSS envIronMenT

➔becAuSe our AccelerATor IS dIfferenT froM The exISTIng oneS

➔lInkIng pIn beTWeen our “young” InnovATIon coMMunITy And bIg coMpAnIeS

➔brIng reSeArch producTS To The MArkeT

Marco Senigalliesi EIT ICT Labs Italy Business Developer

TRENTO RIsE

Trento RiSe is Trentino’s ICT innovation hub, founded by the University of Trento and the Bruno kessler Foundation. It plays a key role in the Trento region’s

innovation ecosystem, interacting with research centres, the academic world, en-terprises, government.

One of the highlight initiatives of Trento RISE is TechPeaks - the talents ac-celerator, a public programme organized in collaboration with Trentino Sviluppo, the Autonomous Province of Trento's agency fostering sustainable development. TechPeaks aims to provide an opportunity for talent, attracting young people from all over the world and transforming the Trento region into a European hub for start-ups in the field of ICT.

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with the United States. A start-up overseas can immediately compete in a uni-form market that natively provides 300 million end customers, speaking a single language, under the same legislation. In Europe, one has a plethora of different laws and taxation policies and one can gather no more than 60 million people speaking the same language. This situation certainly doesn’t encourage start-ups and small businesses with limited budgets to cross their national borders. And this is the weakness of the European cycle: A good educational background, excellent research, but just as research needs to convert into Business, that’s when problems arise, the circle stops and the economy stagnates. At least that’s what happens in Europe. While overseas, we see research becoming Business far more easily, benefit-ting the entire American society and, ironically, relying on European researchers and entrepreneurs who have moved there.

The challenging goal for EIT ICT Labs is that the virtuous circle of Education-Research-Business successfully deploys in Europe. And Business Developers are at the forefront of this activity supported by the European Union. This is not the usual pro-ject in which funds are “injected” to support Universities or enterprise research pro-jects. The European Union has allowed a decidedly limited contribution for the EIT’s initiatives, with a clear and precise objective: Universities, research and enterprises al-ready receive funds in a variety of ways. The EIT must act as a bonding agent, a catalyst or facilitator so that the three worlds work in harmony and in synergy, in an integrated way. For students to become researchers, for research and researchers to switch to ex-isting or new companies, and for these grow on an international scale leveraging the innovation research puts forward.

Business Developers don’t have funds to donate to the companies, but rather their competence, professionalism and networking. The Business Developer is necessarily a senior profile and must obviously have the broadest possible subject-matter expertise on ICT. They must have acquired experience in enterprises, possibly of all sizes, from start-ups to multinationals, because they will need to interact with all of these and adapt to the different dynamics. Obviously, technical skills alone aren’t enough: experi-ence in finance, markets and strategies are also required.

All these skills, along with excellent interpersonal skills are the skillset required for assessing the quality of a company one is meeting: understanding the vision and ap-proach; assessing the business plan; analysing market strategy; judging growth pros-pects in international markets.

The Business Developer’s activities fall into 4 major threads:1. Supporting start-ups: through scouting and coaching activities for those with the

greatest innovative impact, with a dual objective: bringing them to the attention of Large Enterprises (for partnerships or acquisitions) to make them grow on a Euro-pean scale (by partnership or through distribution channels).

2. Supporting small-medium enterprises: the first step in increasing their strength in the global market is to grow internationally. In parallel, given the rapid obsolescence of innovation in the ICT field, one needs to offer small-medium enterprises mature technologies created by universities and research centres they can adopt in order to maintain a high level of innovation.

3. Supporting large companies: primarily aimed at partners, but ultimately for all companies. Large companies have their own research centres and long-term de-


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velopment plans. Due to their size they sometimes have difficulty keeping up with “disruptive” technology which is developing increasingly faster. This means they are highly interested in encountering innovative start-ups and mature technology from research centres with partnering or acquisition in mind, to maintain a high level of international competitiveness thanks to them.

4. Supporting research centres: sometimes research - whether it is funded at European, national and regional levels - produces the highest value results, yet these are un-likely to make it out off the drawing board. The BD engages in scouting so-called mature technologies, bringing them under the radar of SMEs and Large Enterprises in order for them to fuel these companies. As one can see some activities are carried out in perfect synergy and bring benefits

to all parties involved.

Indeed, our international organization (known as the Business Development Acceleration team or team BDA) is very much like a hub that connects start-

coRehab's launch in 2011 was sparked by a question: how to make physical

therapy more enjoyable and effective? The first answer came with Riablo (in its three versions: Stelo, Ubiquo and Anteo). With Riablo physical therapy is achieved playing a videogame.

To win, one must simply carry out the movements set by the physiotherapist, engaging with a graphical interface through specific sensors (pressure mat or wearable motion sensors). The physiotherapist monitors the session through Web Applications, setting the game parameters and checking results, even remotely and in "deferred" mode. This makes it possible to continue monitoring the patient even away from the rehabilitation centre.

The physiotherapist is free to choose the best time to assess progress. Riablo also offers a wide range of exercises to select depending on patient needs. The system is 100% reliable: Riablo was implemented by engineers and medical experts specifically for the physiotherapy field. The product is certified by studies, tests and a number of scientific publications.

CoRehab is primarily aimed at clinics and rehabilitation centres. With the support of the EIT ICT Labs Business Development Accelerator team, Corehab was introduced to the Finnish company Sensorfit. In the initial phase, the

companies were supported in focusing on an integrated business model to identify and penetrate new markets.

Both companies were invited to several meetings to discuss the business model and partnership approach where the goal was finding a potential technology partnership and market synergy. David Tacconi, CEO of CoRehab, and Marko kailasuo, CEO of Sensorfit finally identified a collaboration mode: they will develop a mobile solution of CoRehab capable of detecting the level of daily activity needed in the rehabilitation process and Sensorfit will become a CoRehab sales partner in Scandinavia.

COREHab

SoMeTIMeS reSeArch - WheTher IT

IS funded AT europeAn,

nATIonAl And regIonAl levelS

- produceS The hIgheST

vAlue reSulTS, yeT TheSe Are

unlIkely To MAke IT ouT off The

drAWIng boArd.

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ups, small-medium enterprise, multinationals, research centres and Universities. And that’s not all, because the BDA team hub is also in touch with:

Students from the Doctoral, Master’s and Summer Schools at EIT ICT Labs, to introduce them to start-ups, large companies or to facilitate student internships within these companies;

Entrepreneurs looking for business ideas to develop; Investment funds looking to fund promising innovation.

It is undoubtedly a complex job that needs to be managed organically and in an organized manner. There are already a number of programs and activities developed in line with all the activities and relationships mentioned so far. Naturally the BDA team has a large team to support all activities, namely with 5 BD per node plus additional resources with specific functions for tasks such as Access to Finance, Mature Technologies management, etc.

The EIT ICT Labs are not so well known in Italy at the moment as to spontaneously generate requests from companies to be part of ongoing programs. This means that we BD carry out the scouting. We are in con-tact with business incubators and accelerators as well clusters, to meet the companies growing and developing in those areas. In all cases, the EIT ICT Labs’ activities are considered complementary to those carried out in the organization we visit. We are also in contact with a number of research centres and Universities which offer us their spin-offs. But we also like to go hunting for “diamonds in the rough” growing outside the protected environments we usually hear about through our network of connections.

When we meet a company, we show them what we can do for them and this usually ignites their enthusiasm. They are entrepreneurs and it doesn’t seem real to them that here is a European entity spontane-ously volunteering to support and guide them through international growth. During the meeting, we then move on to a company analy-sis phase. The BD wants and needs to know everything: products/services offered; technology, market, marketing, turnover, financial

POLITECNICO DI TORINO

Politecnico di Torino is a role model for university

studies in engineering and architecture in the Italian and international academic arena. Tradition and innova-tion are traits that set it apart from others and make the campus a stimulating, op-portunity-rich environment. From an entrepreneurial standpoint I3P – the Innova-tive Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino is the leading university incubator in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. I3P supports the birth of new science-based enterprises with validated growth potential, founded both by university research-ers and external entrepre-neurs. It provides them with equipped facilities, profes-sional consulting services to start their own business, connecting them with a network of entrepreneurs, managers and investors.


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RSenS designs, manufactures and sells innovative sensors for measuring Radon gas. Radon is a natural radioactive gas, which is odourless, colourless and tasteless. It can be found everywhere minimum

quantities, but can build up in indoor environments, becoming extremely dangerous for people’s health. When someone inhales Radon, the Alpha particles released may cause severe damage to lung cells. Radon has been recognized by the WHO as the second risk factor for the occurrence of lung cancer.

At the start of its collaboration with EIT ICT Labs, RSENS offered RStone, a high accuracy measurement instrument, at low costs. RStone has proved to be a great product and is destined for professional use.

Following several meetings, a decision was taken to destine the product for an emerging consumer market. This required a new vision and strategy to build a new product measuring overall air quality.

The new measurements no longer focus solely on Radon gas concentrations; they’re now looking for other typical indoor pollutants and integrating environmental parameters (CO, CO2, temperature, humidity, etc.).

RSens designed a new product with these characteristics and the idea was presented to the large Euro-pean companies. Feedback was very good, but the process of acquiring the technology or initiating process did not develop as quickly as expected. At this point, it was decided to look to the U.S. market in order to speed up the process.

Through social media, great contacts with entrepreneurs and large companies working in the field of home-automation were established. After a number of meetings and conference calls, two agreements were reached: the first with a local distributor and the second with a large U.S. company to test the product prototype on their own home-automation platform aimed at the American market.

RsENs

situation, vendors, customers, backers, number of employees, their responsibili-ties and time commitments, level of innovation, intellectual property, growth forecasts, etc.

The information requested may seem a lot, but if the BD has to work as if he were a Business Developer with the company itself, this information is required. This is the only way we can get a clear picture of the situation, understand the potential and con-firm the needs expressed by the company.

When the BD returns to his office and has assessed the company as worthy of back-ing (in this case we label it as “scouted”), the complex task of identifying a BD from another European node begins, so that he can support the company’s growth in his country. To achieve this, every detail of information on the company must be available so that the BD at the destination node can understand what kind of support the ap-plicant company needs and whether there are other companies among his contacts that can back up or support them.

It is a matter of writing, calling, making presentations. But given how broad the ICT sector is, one needs to contact a number of BDs before finding the one with the best opportunity.

When a BD from another node decides to “adopt” the applicant company, it is labelled “Coached”. If the target node’s activity is so effective as to bring concrete results, the company is labelled “Success Story”. The number of Success Stories is the parameter for assessing the efficiency of the BDA team. In 2013 our target was 20. In 2014 we will have 30. That is, by the end of this year, 30 companies will develop on an international scale thanks to the support of the BD network.

We Are In conTAcT

WITh buSIneSS IncubATorS And

AccelerATorS AS Well

cluSTerS, To MeeT

The coMpAnIeS groWIng And

developIng In ThoSe AreAS.

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Innovation is not a “product” created by research laboratories. Instead, it is a process of transformation, renewal, and improvement of something that exists already, or an

answer to a need, which becomes implemented in the market in any case. Innovation responds to a deep, primal human need, in fact it’s an actual way of being: the intel-lect’s answer, once it has processed ongoing human adaptation in a given context. It is of course linked to technology and scientific progress, but goes beyond, touching each aspect of people’s lives in the most varied fields - from the workplace to cultural and social activities. One finds innovation on the streets, in the shops, in everyday interac-tions - be they private or public.

Innovation is by nature aimed at improving people’s living conditions, albeit through small, indiscernible steps, which constantly sustain evolution. In short, although of-ten invisible to the “layman”, it follows us, making many our daily activities not only possible, but less stressful. Catching a bus and being certain of its arrival time is an achievement made possible by modern electronic displays at our bus-stops. Shopping in an online store, interacting with people around the world through Internet – these are all technologically advanced activities.

Wins ecosystem that involves peopleWhen we refer to innovation ecosystem we mean the ideal network connecting the

market with a series of actors such as universities, research centres, business incuba-

Our goal is to improve the quality of life

laura Meijere CristanelliEIT ICT Labs Italy Marketing & Communications Manager

CENTRO RICERCHE FIaT (CRF)

Themission of the centro ricerche fIAT (crf), fIAT’s research body founded in 1978, is to develop products, processes and innovative methodologies

increasing the fiat group’s competitiveness. In partnership with all public and private stakeholders in the field of sustaina-

ble mobility and through a network of relationships with over 1,800 academic and industrial partners, the crf is involved in collaborative research initiatives at na-tional and international levels with the aim of promoting the industrial application of research results.

With around 900 employees, the crf focuses its research and development in th-ree areas: environmental sustainability through projects aimed at increasing energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact throughout a vehicle’s life-cycle; social sustainability, developing systems for active safety, passive, preventive and cooperative transport systems and studying measures to ensure access to mobility for everyone, regardless of their peculiarities; economically sustainable competitiveness, with pro-grams for improving vehicle performance and functionality, aimed at reducing the time-to-market of research results.


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tors, industry, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, developers, students, public institutions. The idea behind this is the capacity to bring innovation to everyone, enabling each subject in this network to flourish, because that is the only way for the ecosys-tem to survive and grow.

Technology is by nature one of the most impor-tant levers for creating innovation. At European level, EIT ICT Labs is among the institutional actors that are most involved in the process of in-novation in the field of information and commu-nication technologies. Since it was established in January 2012, the Italian node of EIT ICT Labs has taken the lead and actively engaged in bring-ing technological evolution results to system level, measuring them across the field. This involves bringing together industrial partners and the most brilliant academics from Italy’s research community over ICT.

As already mentioned, innovation is a process involving people’s daily lives; working on its development in research centres alone does not make sense. This is why EIT ICT Labs (the KIC) and EIT ICT Labs Italy in particular are taking innovation into the field and assess-ing it there.

Local innovation takes shape through partners who are interested in promoting their own projects, also thanks to essential public sec-tor contribution – in particular from the Province of Trento, a sign of attention and of the extent to which its importance is understood locally.

Furthermore, the Italian node is engaged in connecting more effec-tively with other regions where our partners are located (Piedmont, Lom-bardy, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany), and with their respective provincial and regional institutions.

It is impossible to innovate in a region without local involvement, which is to say without creating a stable relationship of collaboration and mutual growth between research centres, institutions, enterprises and end-users. What better example for EIT ICT Labs Italy than its collaboration with the Federazione delle cooperative trentine (partner of EIT ICT Labs).

Even schools are involved in the process: the Buonarroti Technical In-stitute of Trento collaboration demonstrates that one needs to start as early as school.

The node’s sphere of influence extends to a national level and be-yond. In fact, EIT ICT Labs Italy is also the role-model for a number of Eastern European areas, including Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Ro-mania and Greece. The Italian node also operates in these areas with the same objectives and methods, albeit in a more limited manner. The overall objective in this geographical area is to develop collabora-tive partnerships of interest to EU countries that don’t belong to the EIT ICT Labs network. The aim is to cover all three basic fields of the

FEDERaZIONE TRENTINa DELLa COOPERaZIONE

Trentino, already recognized as one of the Eu-ropean regions with the highest quality of life,

has become one great, open, real-life lab in which to apply the innovations of ICT.

The Federazione Trentina della Cooperazione is a key element in this strategy.

The number of the Federation’s member compa-nies (533 companies across a number of sectors) and its 270,000+ members are indeed an essential asset for increasing the penetration of the Italian EIT ICT Labs node in the local territory, enabling it to bring innovation into the field.

AS AlreAdy MenTIoned, InnovATIon IS A proceSS InvolvIng people’S dAIly

lIveS; WorkIng on ITS developMenT In reSeArch

cenTreS Alone doeS noT MAke SenSe. ThIS IS

Why eIT IcT lAbS (The kIc) And eIT IcT lAbS ITAly In

pArTIculAr Are TAkIng InnovATIon InTo The fIeld

And ASSeSSIng IT There.

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“knowledge triangle” model: higher education, research and support for start-ups and SMEs.

Digital technological solutions applied on territoryLocal innovation takes shape through many projects focused on applying digital

technologies to the various fields aiming to optimize the way a city operates, improving quality of life for people in the short and long term.

Just to share a few examples, RetailerIn is a product developed by U-Hopper, (an EIT ICT Labs business community start-up), which has an innovative platform capable of monitoring and analysing customer movement inside a point of sale - in real time. Through small sensors placed on shopping trolleys or baskets, RetailerIn understands how customers move around a supermarket, which routes are more recurrent, where they stop most, and the time they spend shopping. In the U.S.A., the major super-markets have been trying to use IT for some time now, for instance with eye-tracking sensors to understand what people look at on a store shelf. Now, thanks to RetailerIn, sensor systems with this same purpose have reached some of the Trento region’s super-markets to better understand people’s in-store behaviour.

As far as the Italian node is concerned, mobility is also a field in which innova-tion is generated in Trentino. For example, the Fiat Research Centre, together with its European partners from Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands, is working on the “Car-2-X” project. The node’s activity extends the Test Site developed in European project DRIVE C2X. The latter has involved the collaboration of CRF and Italy’s A22 motorway - in the trial of ICT technologies for vehicles and road infrastructure in real-world motorway scenarios. The goal is making traffic safer, reducing congestion, measuring and improving interaction between vehicles and the surrounding environment to reduce hazardous road traffic situations. Test ve-hicles are equipped with a short-range communication system, satellite receiver and on-board computer connected to the vehicle network, and form the so-called “ve-hicle networks” based on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-road infrastructure com-munication. In this project, “Next Generation Car-2-X” looks at data exchange

POLITECNICO DI MILaNO

With over forty thousand engineering, architecture and design students, the politecnico di Milano is Italy’s main scientific/technological university. The university, which

celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2013, focuses on the quality of scientific research, edu-cational innovation and a strong relationship with the fertile, productive economic landscape of its region, leveraging a number of centres for the transfer of technology. Its incubator, poli-hub, promotes the development of start-ups which are often successful on the market.

The university takes part in three eIT IcT labs projects aimed at expo 2015: 3cixty, which develops a platform to facilitate service development (including social) and mobile apps for visitors to the city. city data fusion, with which one can see the city’s dynamic pulse through social (tweets) and phone data.

Streetsmart, which develops interactive applications customized for large screens inte-grating remote interaction (based on gesture and movement) and interaction via personal mobile devices.

juST To ShAre A feW exAMpleS, reTAIlerIn IS A producT developed by u-hopper, (An eIT IcT lAbS buSIneSS coMMunITy STArT-up), WhIch hAS An InnovATIve plATforM cApAble of MonITorIng And AnAlySIng cuSToMer MoveMenT InSIde A poInT of SAle - In reAl TIMe.


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to pinpoint the car’s location, an aspect of essential importance in safety-related applications.

Another mobility project - which also incorporates research in the energy field – and is again located in the Trento region, is “smart tunnels”. The project proposes to save public energy and resources, increasing tunnel safety through so-called “adaptive lighting”. This system can adjust light intensity in a tunnel thanks to information from sensors located inside and outside. The risk effect of darkness/glare (safety improvement) is thus reduced, along with significantly lower energy consumption (saving up to 60% energy). For this, the Trento region is an ideal testing area due to its many road tunnels. Alongside the positive effects on the region, these tunnels could be-come permanent laboratories accessible to both local and interna-tional research centres for carrying out various types of testing.

Finally, a series of projects focused on smart cities and smart spaces will be conducted in the context of EXPO 2015 in Milan. Among these is City-

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developed by Telecom Italia’s jol SkIl, politecnico di Milano and the university of Trento, looks at the dynamics of local events, e.g. estimating people’s presence, their place of origin, the popularity of an event, or the positive and negative reactions it causes in the different social networks. Through a personalized dashboard that's easily accessed by event organizers or public administrators, for example, one can monitor the real time reaction of a city and its visitors during an event, focusing on specific locations or timeframes. The result is an accurate key to understanding the local territory, because it’s statistically significant, broad and far less expensive than any statistical sampling-based tool. citySensing has already been used to feel the city’s pulse during the 2013 and 2014 editions of the Milan design Week, the autumn 2013 edition of the Milan fashion Week and the 2013 edition of lucca comics and games.

Sensing, a project developed by Telecom Italia’s SKIL Lab and Politecnico di Milano. During the 2014 Milan Design Week, CitySensing was already proving its effects in Milan during the event by using Big Data, that enor-mous flow of information that its inhabitants and visitors leave behind them when using their smartphone or move around the city. Using cutting-edge analysis technology and advanced data display models, CitySensing gives a new perspective of how the event has impacted Milan. CitySensing is also a way of telling the city’s story through the data and information people generate: the digital traces left by each of us with the slightest daily gesture, such as making a call, tweeting, or using a public bike.


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The importance of decision-making processesInnovating means having one’s finger on the pulse of things and being

in tune with decision-making processes, with the way in which an area evolves –working with these processes and not in opposition to them. Innovation therefore also means evolving decision-making processes and an evolving regulatory framework.

An example in the Trento area is the “Open data in Trentino” portal initiative, which makes it possible to search, use, and download data or documents containing information produced by public administration for one’s own institutional use through a single point of access. The portal’s aim is promote a widespread use of this data to support the de-velopment of innovative ideas.

The project was launched because making public information assets available contributes to enriching the mass of data typical of today’s internet evolution and which will increase in the coming years. Fur-thermore, aligning public administration with this type of devel-opment changes the way it functions, encouraging management savings and above all, promoting a by-product of services devel-oped in collaboration between the public and private sectors. The demand for new services fosters novel or renewed entrepreneurship focused on new needs satisfied through the availability of new tech-nologies.

The project, managed by the Autonomous Province of Trento, is turning these innovation goals into a tangible reality. It relies on the operational support of Informatica Trentina and EIT ICT Labs in Trento partners (Trento RISE) for aspects pertaining to applied re-search and service innovation from the local lab known as “Laborato-rio territoriale Trentino”. The FBK and the University of Trento pro-vide the technology and research know-how supporting the project’s scientific activities.

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The Mobile Territorial lab (MTl), a project involving the Telecom Italia Joint open lab Semantics knowledge & Innovation Lab (JOL SkIL), FBk and

Trento RISE for the treatment of Personal Big Data, that set of data generated by individuals through their smartphones which turn people into territory sensors, as theorized in Smart City models.

Following the Living Lab model promoted by EIT ICT Labs and by the Autonomous Province of Trento a pilot community of young families using smartphones equipped with sensing software and a SIM has been created.

The project collects a constant flow of information on movement, interaction and preference - providing a dynamic territorial map as it is experienced day to day.

MObILE TERRITORIaL Lab

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From July 27th to August 8th, Gert Guri, Education Area Manager at Trento RISE brings together 50 students from different European countries to investigate issues such as pri-vacy, security and trust.

The scope is creating a network of the different innovation players by fostering the necessary interaction between research, business and education.

What is the Summer School’s objective on Privacy, Security & Trust?The Summer School provides the tools for understanding when to use new technolo-

gies, to assess their advantages, but also to learn about their impact on citizens’ personal spheres. Through lectures, group work, tutoring and company visits, students get hands-on experience of the importance of Big Data while learning how to make such data secure in digital life. For example, identity and e-commerce.

The information age is quintessentially about transparency. Which country is al-ready educating its youth in this kind of citizenship?

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology was born to educate young people throughout Europe, particularly those where its seven nodes are located.

The priority is setting a standard of transparency and communication for every-one. We don’t want a Country that’s better and faster than others, but consistency among States.

How do young Italian talents view the European Institute for Innovation and Tech-nology?

A great opportunity! Students can train in ICT at 19 prestigious European universi-ties. They also have the advantage of a two-year period studying in all these universities and, ultimately, have direct contact with companies for a semester: this is often the fast track into the job market.

Luigi Garofalo

Europe and Training

GerT Guri | EDUCATIoN AREA MANAGER TRENTo RISE

OUTREaCH X-EUROPE

EIT ICT Labs ha lanciato Outreach X-Europe nel 2012/13, programma con l'obiettivo di diffon-dere e promuovere conoscenza e competenze in tutti i paesi europei non ancora direttamente coinvolti in EIT e creando fruttuosi rapporti di collaborazione sul modello: istruzione, ricerca e imprese.

Lo scopo delle attività è di coinvolgere gli stati membri dell'Unione europea dove la corrente EIT ICT Labs non è ancora localizzata. Outreach X-Europe è guidato dal gruppo di Budapest con la partecipazione dei Nodi di Berlino, Helsinki, Trento e l'ufficio Master School di EIT ICT Labs. Il programma intende coinvolgere gli studenti ICT, professori e startup. Le aree dell'iniziativa sono: Studente Opportunità, Attivazione startup, Scouting, Mobilità ed Eventi – Focus. Slovenia, Romania, Austria, Bulgaria e Ungheria hanno partecipato al programma.

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Fabio Carati, Strategic Business Developer at EIT ICT Labs and Entrepreneur, expert in the field working on the Outreach Program, speaks of start-ups in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. You can’t discuss start-ups and innovation unless you consider a region as an “ecosystem,” which can be more or less suitable for development. For instance, if you plant seeds in a plot of land, they can germinate and yield crops, or not. That’s how innovation works: if the ecosystem is suitable, development is far simpler. Otherwise, it’s much harder.

Which ecosystem works best?Silicon Valley is the ecosystem par excellence, because it is more mature and

already has a story of its own. All the others, on the other hand, are twenty years behind. In the United States, corporates and stakeholders have a vested interest in making the system move forward. So giants like Oracle and IBM bet heavily on universities – which keep churning out brains - and it’s in the interest of these big “serial entrepreneurs” to focus on young people, also by acquiring small start-ups and ideas - in fact, they’re supporting the whole ecosystem. Then alongside San Francisco, there are two other American ecosystems, New York and Boston. They have lower turnovers, but they are still continuously pumping vital energy into the innovation sector.

The situation in Europe and the rest of the World?In Europe, we’ve got Berlin and London - but they have not yet reached the right de-

gree of maturity; then there’s Paris and Scandinavia after that. There are other interesting ecosystems located in Tel Aviv, Israel, Japan and Korea, but they can be considered closer to the European followers rather than Silicon Valley.

What about Italy?Trento is a centre of excellence working with EIT ICT Labs to accelerate the innova-

tion process. However, ecosystems thrive if there is a culture of innovation, if entrepre-neurs have an appetite for risk and experience.

What’s the next step?You’ve got to train new entrepreneurs and direct “venture capital” at start-ups. It’s

risky investment but it comes with great growth prospects. That’s the only way to really create an ecosystem. In Italy, an entrepreneurial class should be created – one that can draw other entrepreneurs into the logic of innovation, because we have big universities, excellent engineers, great scientists and advanced technologies - but also enormous flaws from a business and marketing point of view.

Dario Sautto

Silicon Valley ecosystem of excellence, the rest of the world is 20 years behind

Fabio caraTi | STRATEGIC BUSINESS DEVELoPER oF EIT ICT LABS AND ENTREPRENEUR

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fiˇ˘ n.300 delrio · 2014. 10. 27. · of the council of ministers, and delegated to policy for...

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