(Ti Lancio dal Veneto) Padova 31 marzo 2025 – Why should industry collaborate with research? This is the key question to which INFN, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics posed as part of the iSAS – Innovate for Sustainable Accelerating Systems – project, calling to dialogue at an event (see photo) on the question some strategic companies, in terms of innovation capacity and interlocution with international marketplaces, including Friuli-based Eurolls, a leading manufacturer of rollers and accessories for the tube and wire industry within which there is an R&D division on ‘functionalizing coatings,’ which also boasts its own joint patent with INFN for special coating technologies.
Among the major points of agreement was the need to forge closer relationships with industrial entities, both for the acquisition by research institutions of technologies they do not possess and for the process of technology transfer from research institutions to industry. A path in which, it was pointed out, TTOs, that is, facilities or offices dedicated specifically to technology transfer within research institutions or within companies, acquire a key role. In the case of INFN , having a TTO in-house allows the world of research and industry to dialogue, while respecting the rules of public administration. The TTO, in fact, plays the role of a cultural mediator, an interpreter d two worlds that speak different languages and have different goals.The iSAS industrial workshop held at the LNL, INFN’s Legnaro National Laboratories, helped to bring the two worlds closer together, because it was an opportunity for a discussion of concrete issues seen from different points of view, so much so that the importance of continuing with similar initiatives was considered, because “collaboration of this kind is difficult, but it is also the one that potentially brings the most interesting results.”
On the side of industrialists, the time frame between research and the translatability of results into products to be brought to market remains one of the thorniest problems, as several speakers pointed out. “Often the time frame of European projects or research projects is too long for a company,” was the common thought of entrepreneurs. A point on which INFN representatives agreed, stressing, however, that not infrequently industries look for a market-ready product, but “that’s not what we can and want to do as research institutions.” The shared observation, then, was that “there is no exact solution to the problem, but it is possible to take one step each toward the other.” Other topics discussed included those pertaining to open science and patenting.“The Legnaro National Laboratories are a technological crossroads,” Jorgen D’hondt, iSAS scientific officer and chairman of the INFN Research Assessment Committee, stressed in conclusion . “Research organizations and industry need to have an awareness of what has been done and have the will to work together and collaborate in the scientific, technological and commercial aspects.”The iSAS project is a European initiative whose main objective is to promote collaboration between academia and industry to develop innovative and sustainable particle accelerator systems. The project places a strong emphasis on environmental sustainability; innovation-developing new technologies and methodologies to improve the performance and efficiency of accelerators; collaboration between universities, research centers, and companies to foster knowledge and technology transfer; and applications, because the technologies developed by the iSAS project may have applications in a variety of fields. INFN contributes to the project with its expertise in particle accelerators and in promoting technology transfer to the industrial objective of a specific work package of the iSAS project.
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(Dispaccio di Ti Lancio della redazione di Resia)
Nella foto: Renato Railz, ceo Eurolls
