CTE NEXT, the House of Emerging Technologies in Turin, Italy presented itself to the city by opening its doors in the spaces of CSI NEXT, a hi-tech innovation space that will combine technological potential with the challenges and practices of public administration, serving the development and innovation of startups and SMEs.
This is a system project that builds and expands on the objectives of Torino City Lab, the innovation policy of the City of Turin that since 2018 has transformed the city into an open-air innovation laboratory. After an articulated planning with the actors of the territory, in December 2020 the project was admitted to funding - ranking first among the 5 award-winning cities in Italy - by the Ministry of Economic Development (FSC Funds) as part of the Emerging Technologies Program. Launched on March 1, 2021 and with a duration of 4 years, the project will get into full swing after the summer, when its "Service Catalogue", the integrated offer of facilities and consulting services aimed at startups and SMEs, will be officially launched. In the autumn, animation and training activities will be scheduled, as well as structured actions to attract and qualify startups and SMEs, planning and launching of the first "calls to business".
The goal is to create, in close collaboration with the universities of Turin and other 10 strategic partners of the project (Links Foundation, CIM 4.0, I3P, 2I3T, CSI Piemonte, 5T srl, Fondazione Torino Wireless, Digital Magics, Talent Garden, TIM), a widespread technology transfer center on emerging technologies enabled by 5G TIM (Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and blockchain) able to promote business development and urban innovation in some strategic sectors for the Italian city. Among them:
- Smart Road, intended as advanced, safe, intelligent, autonomous and connected mobility;
- Urban Air Mobility, to exploit the potential of integrating air mobility solutions to support applications of urban interest;
- Industry 4.0, building on Turin's industrial past, aiming to promote innovative solutions to connect machines, objects, resources and people in the production environment and along the supply chain;
- the transversal field of Innovative Urban Services, that is the potential of 5G to support Public Administration, for the provision of better services to citizens, the management of resources, goods and public spaces, the enhancement of the territory and business development.
CTE NEXT will be a "widespread house", hospitable, deeply rooted in the skills and assets of the surrounding environment, open to attract talents and opportunities from Italy and the world.
- It will welcome mainly aspiring entrepreneurs, startuppers, SMEs in structured processes of acceleration and technology transfer.
- It will actively involve a broader community of stakeholders (other public administrations, the research world, large companies) with a view to Open Innovation.
- It will network with the Ministry for Economic Development and with other Emerging Technology Houses, cooperating to promote models of support for urban innovation.
- It will enable, through animation actions and support programs, the attraction, development and growth of innovative startups and SMEs and the realization of urban experimentation, involving citizens and the territory in co-design processes of innovative solutions and services for users.
"Thanks to the constant and resilient work of the Administration carried out in the last 5 years on the theme of innovation and smart city, Turin has won at the national level this coveted program that aims to accelerate the transition of innovation leading cities towards new models of sustainable urban development," said Chiara Appendino and Marco Pironti, respectively Mayor and Councillor for Innovation of the City. "Turin has become an internationally recognized laboratory city for its smart city experiments, which leverage emerging technologies to create new services for businesses and citizens. We firmly believe that this program can empower Torino and its innovation ecosystem by bringing tangible and sustainable benefits to the territory and its stakeholders."
"Today we inaugurate, next to our historic headquarters, a highly innovative structure that will represent the ideal bridge between the present and the future of public administration, as well as the meeting point with research and industry," said Pietro Pacini, Director General of CSI Piemonte. "A forge for ideas and a gym to practice innovation, which will also be inspired by the beauty of the spaces that will be made available to help create the Turin of tomorrow. We've been working on it for years and I'm sure it will best realize the ideal of a public sector that is finally fast, easy and close to people."
