unibz Industry Day 2024 | Research meets business

How can South Tyrolean companies successfully cooperate with the university? How can they attract students and future graduates? The Industry Day on 26 September, organised in collaboration with Unternehmerverband Südtirol - Confindustria Alto Adige, aims to build a bridge between research and industrial partners. During the event, professors, researchers and students will present research projects and internships carried out in collaboration with local companies.

Sustainable insulation materials for concrete walls, robotic solutions for remanufacturing, a training centre based on augmented reality for setting up complex machines. These are just some of the nine best practices that will be presented on 26 September at the second Industry Day at the Faculty of Engineering on the NOI Techpark campus. The event, organised by the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in close collaboration with Unternehmerverband Südtirol - Confindustria Alto Adige, aims to highlight the many ways in which companies can benefit from working with the local university.

Many well-known South Tyrolean companies are already taking advantage of the opportunity to realise their own innovation projects with the support of the expertise of researchers from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. Durst, Loacker, GKN Powder Metal, Global Wafers. Progress Group, Tratter Engineering: together with their respective unibz research teams, they will demonstrate what is possible when entrepreneurial skills and vision are combined with scientific knowledge.

Many of the projects to be presented on 26 September are technology-oriented (Faculty of Engineering), but there will also be room for collaborative projects involving the Faculties of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, Economics and Education, such as a study for the A22 motorway that examines the social impact of sustainable hydrogen mobility on the provinces of Bolzano and Trento.

There is still a lot of untapped potential for cooperation, which can also be financially rewarding for companies. There are a number of European and regional funding programmes that give further impetus to cooperation between research institutes and companies. These include, most recently, the PNRR funds. A permanent source of funding for collaborative research projects is the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Fusion Grant competition, funded by the Sparkasse Stiftung - Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio dell’Alto Adige, and the Provincial Law 14/2006 'Research and Innovation' also offer interesting opportunities for joint research activities with companies. Finally, in addition to these funding opportunities, unibz, like other universities throughout Europe, offers the possibility of concluding research contracts with professors.

In addition to collaborative research, companies also benefit from well-trained junior staff. The fact that unibz students don't have to wait until they graduate is demonstrated by another point in the Industry Day programme: companies such as Alperia, Rothoblaas, Microtec, Leitner and Finstral will demonstrate the contribution that students can make during their internships.

Industry Day 2024 will take place on 26 September from 14:00 to 18:00 in the Auditorium Magna of the new Faculty of Engineering at the NOI Techpark campus. The event is open to all interested parties. Registration is mandatory at bit.ly/IndustryDAY2024.