Make the Science and Technology Park of the Politecnico di Milano active by 2015: this is the ambitious project underway at the Milanese third-level institution and its Fondazione.
The idea is to create a Science Park that is capable not only of driving the city's future development, but also the entire Italian economic and industrial system; a place where the university, public administration and enterprise can work together to conduct joint research projects, develop new technologies, develop products and applications and favour the creation of new businesses. It will be an ecosystem made up of highly-qualified academic staff, spaces and infrastructures, innovative start-ups, know-how, technology and research: an ideal mix of elements for kick-starting an engine of innovation that is capable of rising to the international technological challenge.
The geographic location and the surrounding region are favourable for the siting of the Science Park: the Bovisa campus is close to the centre of Milan, near the city's new Rho-Pero trade fair quarter, well served by public transport, accessible to logistics, and positioned almost directly between Malpensa and Linate airports. And there's no lack of space for development at Bovisa: the area currently occupied by the Politecnico di Milano is around 115,000 m2 which, with the creation of the Science Park, is set to reach 600,000 m2. In addition the park, in addition to the infrastructure for university courses, will see the construction of management centres, laboratories and industrial design studios run by big companies, and also the construction of residential buildings. These characteristics make Bovisa the ideal zone for developing an "Italian Silicon Valley".
The close cooperation between academia and industry will take place in the form of Joint Research Centres, i.e. infrastructures for joint research and sharing of human resources between research faculties and large companies. Interest will concentrate on sectors like: energy and the environment, sustainable mobility, transport, and ICT applications. And indeed, the first centres to be set up as of the time of writing are the energy JRC and the transport JRC. Their activities will be focused on: innovative solutions for producing energy and for improving the use of energy sources; technologies for saving energy, in the construction of buildings and also in running the industrial/productive processes of SMEs; the development of intermodal transport and of rail transport infrastructures, and the creation of the first Italian high-speed train.
The Science and Technology Park will offer space, equipment and infrastructure to the start-ups in the Acceleratore d'Impresa del Politecnico di Milano, incubator unit of the Politecnico di Milano, which is currently operated by the Fondazione. Services for business & market assessment and fundraising will be consolidated, agreements will be arrived at with associations and bodies that operate in the financial sector and in venture capital, and systemic relations of cooperation will be created with companies, research centres, universities and international bodies, in order to support the growth of the incubated companies and favour the setting-up of innovative companies.
Currently the Bovisa campus in Milan houses: the Faculty of Civil Architecture, Design and Industrial Engineering, the Faculties of Energy, Management Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, several research laboratories run by the Politecnico di Milano, and some young businesses incubated by the Acceleratore d'Impresa. By 2012 it is planned to transfer the Faculties of Aerospace Engineering, Electronic Engineering and Information to the Technology Park, along with all the Milanese start-ups in the incubator of the Politecnico di Milano.