1. The innovation environment at the
University of Calabria
Giuseppe Rossi, Francesca Tucci, Massimo Paturzo
Liaison Office – Università della Calabria
MANASKIN - September 24 – October 2, 2012 1

2. Summary The University of Calabria
The “third” mission of the University
Its functional model
Which tools for innovation?
Liaison Office – the Technology Transfer Office
Pole of Innovations for ICT and Materials
TechNest – the Incubator

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4. The University of Calabria:
One of the few residential campus in Italy
40 years old -> quick development
14 Departments for teaching and research, 850 researchers/professors, 750 administratives/technicians about 35’000 students
A “weak” territory
The challenge of the research system in Calabria
Technology Transfer to trigger a process of development of the Region Calabria 4

5. Università della Calabria
Engineering
ICT – Computer Science …
Hard Science
Nano-Science
Nano-Technology
Applications
Genetics 5

6. The third mission of Universities
The two traditional missions of Universities are Research and Teaching.
Today, Universities are called to satisfy a third very relevant request:
to act as aware engines
for the economic and social
development of a territory
Exploitation of knowledge is a duty, not a right of public research centers 6

7. To give value to research results
Research/Development
Critical phases
Idea +
evaluation
Valorisation
Intellectual Property Rights : patent, … 7

8. Functional model Research IDEA Market opportunities Demand for patent
State of the Art, priority
Demand for patent
application
Market opportunities
1° contact with inventors
Research monitoring
Commission for patents and spin-off
External Consultants
National / International patent applications, which belong to University
Research IDEA
Patent selling
Licensing
SPIN-OFF/Start up
Commercial valorisation
Contacts with industries 8

9. ecosystem suitable for growth
Which tools for innovation and development?
High quality fundamental and applied researches
Intellectual Property (Culture of coded knowledge)
Support to develop new business (business competitions, mentoring, bp development …)
Spin Off/Start Up companies and first-mile incubators
Public system well recognized by private companies and investors
Companies which believe in innovation
Private risk funding (vc, ba, …)
Goverments and administrators must work to provide an
ecosystem suitable for growth
Basic conditions to allow the development of innovative ideas and to obtain value from innovation processes
Structures to facilitate innovation processes: TTO, KTO, …

10. An integrated system for technological transfer
CC ICT SUD
CENTRO DI COMPETENZA ICT-SUD

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12. TechNest: the nest of technologies
TechNest is the UNICAL’s Academic Business Incubator (ABI), which was created in TechNest occupies a 2000 m2 area on UNICAL’s Campus and has 20 offices, meeting and conference space, with a well-developed ICT infrastructure
It currently hosts 16 S&T-based firms, which were selected through the business accelerator programme, business plan competitions (Progetto Crescita, Start Cup Calabria) and the University Spin-off programme
The incubator programme currently focuses on the following three priority areas: materials and nanotechnologies; quality of life and health; and information and communication technology (ICT)

14. Start Cup Calabria 2011 Regional business competition
managed by University of Calabria …in collaboration with Dpixel and Techgarage
Period May-September 2011
Access to National Prize for Innovation (PNI)
200 partecipants 50 business ideas
First special prize (1 M€ in equity) for 2 business ideas:
Eco4Cloud
Altilia 14