NANO-REGION

Nano-Region: an open network for innovation through nanotechnology
Priority Axis 1: Promoting innovation capacities for a more competitive area
Specific Objective: OS 1.1.
Investment Priority: PI 1b
Typology of the porject: Strategic

Overall Objective of the Project:
Developing a network of research centres and parks with a nano-technological vocation focused on promoting technology transfer. The network, aimed at businesses, will offer access to enabling technologies and contribute to creating a new culture of innovation, through a programme of targeted open events, a consultancy service, and feasibility studies, responding to the needs expressed by individual businesses and stimulating the creation of new products, markets and businesses.

Project summary:
The industrial strategies of the third millennium are increasingly focused on advanced specialisations and refined enabling technologies, including nanotechnology. In the Interreg SLO-ITA programme area, there is a well-established manufacturing tradition that urgently needs to make a qualitative leap forward in order to meet the challenges posed by global society in the new millennium. On the other hand, the same area also includes the most advanced skills in emerging technologies and in particular in the field of nanotechnologies, thanks to a series of excellent research centres. The aim of the project is to connect existing nanotechnology skills to the needs of the industrial world. The project will address the following aspects: - widespread territorial awareness activities aimed mainly at bridging the gap between science and industry in the field of nanotechnology; - cross-border standardisation of nanotechnology transfer practices; - setting up an operational network of laboratories, which will operate as a single entity to provide full support on nanotechnology issues for regional companies, including through a programme of proof of concept experiments.

The main result of the project is to effectively transfer technology from the research centres operating in the Interreg macro-region to the companies operating in the same territory, which in the medium and long term will be able to improve the competitiveness, the level of employment and the economic impact of the local production system. In particular, the project will be considered a success if:(a) in the short term (3 years from inception) there will be a significant increase in joint research projects operating between companies and research centres; (b) in the medium term (5 years) there will be the creation of a new scientific-entrepreneurial culture capable of jointly addressing the technological challenges of the new millennium. In particular, actions involving students and entrepreneurs may stimulate an increase in professional careers linked to technology transfer;(c) in the long term (10 years) there will be an increase in the turnover of the companies involved of a factor 10 times greater than the investment of the Interreg Programme.

The Nano-Region project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg V-A Italy-Slovenia Cooperation Program. You can read more about the Interreg program online: https://www.eu-skladi.si/?set_language=en