Chemical and pharmaceutical, applications for the reuse of materials, agrofood: Italy needs to grow. These are strategic sectors and there is not only the need to increase production, but to develop research.
Enea has announced a tender from 1 million euro for these sectors in favor of companies that have projects to implement. The funding comes from the Proof of Concept program, a container that aims to shorten the gap between research and industrial application. In practice, how feasible is an idea in an industrial context.
December 12th is the deadline to apply, choosing from the 34 proposals identified in different thematic areas. The grid is representative of the needs of our system to better address competitiveness.
The scenario of Enea's proposals is actually broader and has an endowment of 5 million euros. The announcement is only the first tranche is of a program valid for the three-year period 2023-2025 as part of the PNRR.
Without research there is no growth
It's an approach open innovation which supports ENEA technology development projects in collaboration with companies and investors. “Through financing we aim to minimize the risk for companies of investing in technologies that still have a relatively low level of technological maturity” says Gaetano Coletta, director of Enea.
In this way we work to bring together the needs of the market with the skills and results of public research. Financial availability also serves as an orientation for entrepreneurs to focus on futuristic tools. Experiments in the identified sectors must encourage new applications which in addition to reducing production costs must have specificity and rewarding characteristics.
In short, companies have the opportunity to challenge themselves if they have clearly conceived projects with a low environmental impact. Those who "co-finance future projects with a contribution exceeding 10% of the costs - Enea clarifies - will be granted a free option right on the exclusive license of the developed patent". The opposite of complaints about lack of public aid.
