There are silent revolutions that change the world without us realizing it. The Golinelli Foundation of Bologna is one of the most active actors of change, but perhaps we are not yet fully aware of it. It has been working for years to improve the reality that surrounds it, offering young people and consequently society opportunities for cutting-edge cultural and professional growth, with the aim of training people capable of imagining the future, of working in teams, of create new business. It is a complex itinerary, which runs along main and side roads, which all converge in the end in a single place of knowledge and doing: the Opificio. To carry out this silent revolution, today the Golinelli Foundation has also revolutionized itself. How does he explain it to us the general manager Antonio Danieli.
Danieli, how is the Golinelli Foundation changing?
“Our Foundation has become a kind of philanthropic holding company at the head of the underlying divisions. The two main arms of this corporate structure are G-Lab and G-Factor, two limited liability companies, controlled by the Foundation itself, which deal with training and business creation. G-Lab and G-Factor are companies, which must remain on the market as if they were profit companies, while remaining non-profit for the most important aspect and that is as regards the reinvestment of their profits in the activities of the company itself”.
Why did you make this choice?
“Ours is a Foundation that looks far ahead, as demonstrated by the foresight of its creator Marino Golinelli. With the "Opus 2065" project, Golinelli has tried to project us into the next 50 years, but the Foundation must go further and to do so it must be able to remain on the market with its initiatives. For example, with G-Factor we will take on a business risk by participating in start-ups in which we believe. We could also be wrong, but at the same time we will give ourselves the opportunity to grow and become bigger".
A long way has already been done so far…
“I have to say yes, our numbers prove it: over 500 hours of training provided, more than one hundred scientific partners, 300 visitors and counting and soon the doubling of spaces, with 14 square meters where we can carry out our activities”.
When will the new area be inaugurated?
“In the first weeks of the new year we will be ready. On the other hand, the call to participate in the first call for start-up ideas closed on 11 December. The new business incubator will have 2500 square meters available for emerging entrepreneurial realities, in a collaborative and generative environment, which allows the fertilization between different skills, experiences and cultures, from the humanistic to the technical, from the scientific to the economic one. We are currently evaluating the 124 applications we have received and will announce the winners in February. The 10 selected projects, for which we have allocated one million euros, will start in March and will follow an acceleration program lasting 9 months, three of which are residential in Bologna and 6 of remote mentoring. Approximately 44% of the tender participants compete in the medtech sector, 24,5% in pharma and biotech, another 24% presented bioinformatics and biomedical engineering projects, finally almost 8% in nutraceuticals. About ten candidates come from abroad, even if the universities of northern Italy still make up the lion's share. There is a good presence of projects from the south, center and islands. Our intention, in the next editions, is to expand even more internationally. We want our G-Factor model to be as broad as possible. We have the ambition to say that we are an unprecedented model on the global scene. We are not just a business incubator or a meeting place between ideas and money, but a complex structure that makes use of many public and private partners, and which holds together all the facets necessary for the creation of a company that enjoys also from a long-term perspective.
Is the Opificio Golinelli, which is where many of your activities take place, complete at this point?
“Yes, the Opificio is and increasingly will be an open ecosystem in which education, training for students and teachers, research, technology transfer, incubation, acceleration, venture capital, dissemination and promotion of science and the arts are integrated of the Golinelli Foundation. Our goal is to become, within the next three years, one of the most important reference centers for innovation at European level. It is no coincidence that we have also decided to host the first Competence Center of the eight selected by the Mise and created by the University of Bologna with 57 other public and private partners. This is BI-Rex and it will guarantee training, consultancy and guidance to companies for the adoption of new advanced technologies in the industry 4.0 field. It is a piece that fits perfectly into the large mosaic designed by the Opificio”.
Is G-Lab the company that deals with training?
“Yes, all educational and training activities are now managed by G-Lab. Today most of our activities are carried out in the Opificio, but we cannot continue to expand. Given that demand is growing, we will bring training to schools, universities, places where it is required".
Does the Centro Arte e Scienza also have a dedicated corporate structure?
“No, for the moment it depends directly on the Foundation, even if it has a scientific committee that deals with the planning of events, with the coordination of our president, Professor Andrea Zanotti. In fact, we are preparing a great event for autumn 2019, but I can't anticipate anything yet".
