Fabio De Furia, President of the Miami Scientific Italian Community says: “We look to the past but above all to the future, to the next ten years and the challenges that lie ahead. Growth can’t be stopped, a nice way to celebrate the first ten years since its founding”. On Italian Research and Innovation abroad he also says: “There is no space for improvising, we need a medium- long term development strategy that uses knowledge and expertise as fundamental accelerators.”
The Miami Scientific Italian Community was established as a technology transfer center (on the same model as the Italian Research Cities), facilitates the meeting of small and medium-sized enterprises and new technologies. It supports, alone and with its members, the technology development programs and the participation in grant USA, ITA national regional measures or Horizon Europe. It was established in 2013 at the behest of Unindustria Lazio, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, ENEA, La Sapienza, Tor Vergata, Roma Tre, LUISS, Finmeccanica, Polo Tecnologico e Industriale di Roma, Chamber of Commerce of Rome, Unicredit Group, Radio Dimensione Suono, Guida Monaci, the De Furia Group and a group of Italian Researchers already very active in the South East. It is also recognized as the Association of Italian Researchers abroad by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Cooperation and the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research. It is, with no doubt, among the most active associations of Italian researchers abroad that have distinguished themselves for the initiatives conducted also together with MAECI. Subsequently, the Texas Scientific Italian Community and now the California Scientific Italian Community were born with the same business model.
The creation of the first Italian platform for foreign scouting of patented technologies from the Italian public research world was designed to add in the perception of Made in Italy abroad that Italy was not only “Food, Fashion and Furniture” but that in the core of the University and Research Centers there were technologies that could compete with anyone in the U.S. and the world. A tool to create the link among universities, companies, and funders; an official channel that technologies with potential are valorized through. There are more than 2,000 technologies spanning all major technological and industrial sectors. All the information in the “patent tab” is purpose-built to provide the essential and useful information to trigger the interest of potential investors and create points of contact with companies.
It was such an innovative project for the Italian innovation ecosystem that we took time to make the whole project clear to everybody. With this idea, Italy has the possibility to compete anywhere and with anyone.
Fabio De Furia says: “We broaden knowledge and relations between the Italian and the U.S. realities and multiply opportunities. Many get benefits from this project especially the ones that, through the Miami Scientific Italian Community, can give concrete answers to the problems and the expectations”.
Antonello Pileggi, the first President and its founder, put us in correlation with the South East Italian Scientific Community and since then we have shared a common path made of many successes. The birth of the International Advisory Board to support the Board of Directors in defining programmatic, strategic, and innovative activities aims to foster the creation of Italy-US institutional information networks on the issues and opportunities offered by the respective markets.
In 10 years many projects were born, perhaps the most institutional was the support to the Network of all Networks, “Innovitalia”, the portal managed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of University and Research that we have constantly support the relationship between our country and the world of Italian Research abroad.
The other projects are the following:
The scientific partnerships for Horizon 2020, the launch of the call Unicredit Start Lab, the platform to accompany startups by offering services to support new entrepreneurship, Unirete, Meet in Italy for Life Sciences but also several organizations of meetings and exchanges with delegations, from the Politecnico di Torino to Berkeley University, La Sapienza from NASA to Florida International University and University of Miami. The organization of a collective participation in the eMerge Americas fair of Universities and Small Businesses with high technological content, in the form of the Network and for the aerospace sector Think Tech Italia.
And then Turning Point on industrial design, PMI DAY in the USA, the meeting between American students and Italian SMEs, Leonardo’s Way projects, Chiedilo a Loro, up to Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 where MSIC supported in Florida with information the population during the pandemic. A place, a continuous source of communication, interpretation and insight, on the Ordinances and other measures that followed from Italian and American institutions to respond to the demands of the affected sectors.
Also, the partnership for the U.S. with L’Imprenditore – Confindustria’s magazine dedicated to SMEs that hosts in-depth articles, interviews, stories of Italian SMEs and analysis on international scenarios; and, agreements with Confindustria’s regional Small Industries to support Universities and Polytechnics: Politecnico di Torino, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Politecnico di Bari and their patent portfolios, Confindustria’s Registry International platform of Retimpresa, the Conference of Italian Researchers in the World, Tech Share Day the event of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, Politecnico di Torino and Netval until the birth of Business Place Puglia the first Business Community platform for Small and Medium Enterprises in Puglia.
What about today? Today, the demand for more research and more innovation must find new answers, appropriate to the changes, use technology leading from research to innovation. The geopolitics of research, after two years of pandemic and in the framework of new international scenarios, sees a new role for skills, knowledge, results. New relationships are established with new territorial zones. We aim for globalization, including in science and technology.
We will be ready for the new challenges, We will be there for our country!
