Innovation: ENEA invests €2 million in Kilometro Rosso for new labs studying materials 4.0 and smart cities

ENEA has inaugurated two labs in the Kilometro Rosso Science and Technology Park, one of Europe's leading innovation districts, one of the labs being dedicated to advanced technologies and services in the field of “Sustainable Materials and Industrial Processes 4.0” and the other to “Technologies for Smart Cities”. The initiative follows on from the bilateral cooperation agreements signed by the Agency with Kilometro Rosso, the University of Bergamo and the Lombardy Region, and envisages a total investment of €3 million, of which €2 million from ENEA and about €1 million from the region, to provide financial support for 13 ongoing doctorates.

“ENEA's set up labs in KM Rosso to transfer innovative technologies and advanced services to the production world and the Lombardy region in sectors of particular relevance, while also offering opportunities for growth and development to young researchers", said ENEA president Gilberto Dialuce. “The aim is to initiate forms of collaboration between companies, the research system and the local region in order to spark demand for innovation and training for the benefit of growth and competitiveness. Consequently the partnerships with the Lombardy Region and the University of Bergamo are particularly strategic”, Dialuce concluded.

“ENEA’s presence on the Kilometro Rosso campus is an important recognition for us and a unique opportunity to identify new opportunities for technology transfer from one of the most important international research centres – ENEA – to the industrial fabric of our region”, underscored Kilometro Rosso President and Brembo Chairman Emeritus Alberto Bombassei. “The two new laboratories, the first dedicated to ‘Sustainable Materials and Industrial Processes 4.0’ and the second to ‘Technologies for Smart Cities’, cover some of the topics that interest our companies most: indeed, digitisation and sustainability from a 4.0 perspective are the pillars of the new competitive landscape our country is operating in”, Bombassei concluded.

“This agreement with ENEA”, commented the rector of the University of Bergamo, Sergio Cavalieri, “represents a strategic partnership for our university in the area of smart cities and smart materials. The collaboration includes the setting up of two joint labs at the Kilometro Rosso site and the involvement of six of our PhD students, and plans are in place to further expand the research team with other PhDs and PhD students. Our thanks go to the Lombardy Region, which, thanks to its investment, made the project scholarships possible”.

In detail, the “Sustainable Materials and Industrial Processes 4.0” laboratory will offer companies in the Lombardy region and their associations sustainable and innovative manufacturing technologies in the field of additive manufacturing, specialised personnel and dedicated infrastructures to work on ceramic and metal materials, polymers and composites, also integrated with secondary materials from recycling or natural sources, as well as the production of demonstration components. The aim is to meet the research demand of industries in the Lombardy region and create a place where ENEA's know-how and the expertise of the manufacturing world can be brought together.

The “Technologies for Smart Cities” lab will enable the development of partnerships between research, industry and public administrations involving smart communities and digitisation in order to make innovative solutions, software tools and services available. The lab has advanced infrastructure such as the smart lab for qualification testing and development of management algorithms, and is equipped with hardware and software for the development of interoperable digital platforms for the integration of urban services (buildings, public lighting, mobility, security, assisted living services), the promotion and dissemination of smart communities and energy communities.

The ENEA-Lombardy Region accord was the driving force behind the new ENEA laboratory on “Technologies of Sustainability”, which will be inaugurated at the University of Brescia on 24 June and will host six PhD projects, internships and several joint project initiatives, creating another focal point in the Lombardy region where ENEA expertise in a variety of areas will come together to foster innovation and the industrialisation of research results.

The two ENEA laboratories are situated in a campus with 93,000 square metres of offices, studios, laboratories and common areas where more than 2,000 professionals from around 75 national and international resident partners, companies, research centres and universities work together.