An open ecosystem to promote and stimulate innovative business transformation processes and, at the same time, offer opportunities for growth and success to the many talents and different professional skills that are trained within the University in a continuous exchange of knowledge, services and tools in the name of research. The Digital Transformation and Technology transfer HUB of the University of Palermo is located within the university campus on Viale delle Scienze: a complex service center, just launched, which aims to make the entrepreneurial fabric an integral part of the University.
The Hub was presented during the event organized in synergy with the regional department of Productive Activities entitled “Research and innovation, tools to support Sicilian businesses”.
“The synergy with the University of Palermo, one of the most important academic institutions in the region, is essential – explained regional councilor Edmondo Tamajo – to create fertile ground in which businesses, students and researchers can collaborate, share skills and knowledge, and contribute to the economic and social growth of Sicily. I am convinced that this project represents a pillar on which to build the future of our economy, an economy that knows how to enhance innovation, research and sustainability as key elements for lasting and inclusive progress. We will continue to work in this direction, always alongside businesses and institutions, with the aim of creating a competitive, modern Sicilian production system ready to face the challenges of the future”.
The Digital Transformation and Technology transfer HUB, created by the University of Palermo to offer support to research and business in sectors that are drivers for the market, will stand alongside those who are engaged in research activities, in the generation and positioning of patents on a daily basis.
“The strength of this project – underlined the rector of the University of Palermo, Massimo Midiri – is represented by the vast network of partners that already include important industrial players of national interest. A network that guarantees a direct connection between our University and the industrial world. The Hub will provide concrete support to all companies that demonstrate the need to strengthen their potential thanks to the transfer of knowledge, technologies and above all through the digital transition. For our students and researchers, however, it represents an opportunity for professional growth already during the academic path to further develop at the end of the studies through a real and immediate path of insertion into the world of work that looks to a certain future”.
The services offered aim to provide the useful tools to face digital challenges, improve the competitiveness of companies, promote their sustainability by favoring the employability of graduates and the attractiveness of the University. Among the partners already present: Bio4Dreams, a startup incubator in the Life Sciences sector; Bi-Rex, the Competence Center of Bologna specialized in Big Data; Deloitte, whose network offers audit & assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and legal services to clients in the public and private sectors; EHT, a company of the Harmonic Innovation Group and Materias, an early stage combined accelerator for the launch of startups based on innovative materials. The portfolio of collaborations is destined to grow if we consider that, in recent years, Unipa has signed thousands of agreements, at various levels, with the business world to achieve various objectives: from carrying out internships to designing innovative masters, such as the one created with the Italian electricity grid operator Terna. Furthermore, the Hub can already count on the national platform of services for the Life Science area with a focus on Precision Medicine thanks to the Heal Italia program and the synergy with the Biodiversity Gateway: an infrastructure under construction that will develop from the Italian research center dedicated to biodiversity, the National Biodiversity Future Center.