La Enel Foundation andBerkeley University they announced the new one partnerships aimed at offering a new approach that strengthens the link between University research e entrepreneurship. As part of the collaboration, an Energy Fellowship Program will be created between the laboratories of UC Berkeley and Stanford which will allow a group of Visiting Fellows of the Enel Foundation to take advantage of UC Berkeley's state-of-the-art laboratories and incubators. The opening of the application submission phase is scheduled for the autumn of 2021 while the work of the first group of researchers will start in 2022.
In particular, the program also includes some collaborations with the laboratories of the Stanford University through the CSMI. Participants will be chosen among researchers working for the Group or carrying out academic activities within theItalian Chapter of the World Energy for Universities (We4U), the academic program of the Enel Group. The first research grants will be reserved for post-doctoral researchers from the Milan Polytechnic and the Turin Polytechnic.
The realities that will host the researchers will initially be selected within a database of affiliated laboratories at the CSMI of UC Berkeley, Stanford and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and in a second phase through an open competition that will reward the ideas more innovative in the sectors of interest selected in collaboration between the CSMI and the Enel Foundation. In addition, researchers will work in areas including the industrial application of the principles ofThe circular economy, sustainability, reduction of consumption and waste, renewable sources and so on.
Finally, at the end of the research program the participants will have a series of possibilities: from the creation of start-up to the sale of licenses to third parties, from the adoption and application of new technologies within the Enel Group to the continuation of their research. The intent is to extend the initiative to other Italian universities and research institutions, leveraging the talent and innovation of Italian researchers to equip them with the right tools to create Silicon Valley hubs in Italy.
“We are excited about this collaboration, which will serve as a hub for scientific and technological innovation capable of achieving some of the most pressing development goals in materials design and the circular economy,” he said. Alessandra Lanzara, founder and principal of CSMI, Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley and faculty scientist in the Materials Science division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The partnership intends to strengthen Italy's presence in industry and in the field of innovation in the Bay Area. Born following the official visit to Silicon Valley of Italian President Sergio Mattarella, which took place in October 2019 and which led to the recent creation of the Italian Innovation and Culture Hub in San Francisco.
“President Mattarella and the Italian consul Lorenzo Ortona have demonstrated great vision in supporting exchanges between basic science and applied technology – added Lanzara -. It is a great opportunity for industry and academia to share expertise and strengths with each other”.
Ernesto Ciorra, Innovability Director of the Enel Group and General Director of the Enel Foundation, commented: “The program has the ambitious goal of speeding up the transition to the industrialization phase of projects that are currently in the research phase, with the possibility of transform researchers into entrepreneurs, as often happens in Silicon Valley. We are grateful to the President, Sergio Mattarella, whose visit to San Francisco was a source of inspiration for this initiative, and to the Consul, Lorenzo Ortona, who encouraged and supported the creation of the Fellowship program.”
