Roadshow del mezzogiorno: Ideas and Projects for Innovation and Sustainability on the Move | Spoke 2 & Spoke 4 in Potenza: How did it go?

A meeting where new connections were made between the protagonists of change and innovation in the South!

On Thursday 24 October, in Potenza, at the Macchia Romana University Campus of the University of Basilicata, Spoke 2 - Green Technologies and Sustainable Industries and Spoke 4 - Digital and Sustainable Mountain organised with the partner University of Basilicata the event ‘Ideas and Projects of Innovation and Sustainability in Motion’. A day full of speeches, round tables, poster sessions and pitches by the winning companies of the NODES ‘Line A Mezzogiorno’ cascade calls, which illustrated the projects and the first results obtained so far. A meeting where new connections were made between the protagonists of change and innovation in the South!

The event represents the fourth stage of Round Grip - a cycle of multidisciplinary meetings that promotes collaboration between researchers and businesses, catalysing innovation from research to the territory, and saw a number of different actors and actors of the ideas and projects of innovation and sustainability in motion on the stage of the Aula Magna Rinauro of the University of Basilicata.

The day opened with greetings and a welcome from the University of Basilicata, and then passed the floor to the Basilicata Region, represented by Councillor Laura Mongiello, who emphasised that projects such as NODES represent an opportunity for the digital and sustainable transitions of regions from North to South Italy.

This was followed by the following speeches:

Cristina Prandi - Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Turin and Coordinator of Spoke 2 - who introduced the NODES Ecosystem and presented its highlights;
Nicole Mariotti - 3rd Parties Project Manager of Spoke 2 - who spoke about Spoke 2 - Green Technologies and Sustainable Industries and the Flagship Project Grip and Round Grip;
Marco Alderighi - Full Professor at the University of Valle D'Aosta and Spoke 4 Coordinator - who spoke about Spoke 4 - Digital and Sustainable Mountains, the flagship projects SMART WEST, SUMMER, and INTERFACE;
Stefano Superchi - Full Professor at the University of Basilicata - who illustrated in his speech ‘Circular Territory: New supply chains for the valorisation of agroforestry waste’ the objectives of the research work of Spoke 2 at the University of Basilicata;
Antonio Conte - Full Professor at the University of Basilicata - who illustrated in his speech ‘Digital and Sustainable Mountain: The Strategic Role of the Mezzogiorno’ the Research Modules and the roles of the Partners in the flagship Projects of Spoke 4 at the University of Basilicata

Space to innovation

It was then Gabriella Megale - Sole Director of Sviluppo Basilicata - who told, in her speech, how Innovation can be an engine of growth, reporting data and information on the companies active in Basilicata, the projects supporting Innovation put into play by Sviluppo Basilicata, and recalling in closing that ‘Innovating is not only Adapting to Change, it is Anticipating it to create New Opportunities’.

Rocco Capobianco , from the Basilicata Region's Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies Directorate, then illustrated the ‘New digital tools for the management of Basilicata's forestry policies’ while also presenting data on the Lucanian forest territory.

This was followed by a round table entitled ‘Basilicata tomorrow: innovation and sustainable development’, moderated by Annalisa Percoco - Senior Researcher Fondazione Eni - Enrico Mattei, with:

Gabriella Megale | Amministratore unico Sviluppo Basilicata;
Antonio Lanorte | Presidente Legambiente Basilicata;
Francesco Cellini | Direttore di ricerca di ALSIA - Agenzia Lucana di Sviluppo e di Innovazione in Agricoltura e Cluster Lucano Bioeconomia;
Anna Abbate | Direzione generale dell’ambiente del territorio e dell’energia;
Cristina Prandi | Prof.ssa Ordinaria di Chimica Organica dell'Università degli Studi di Torino e Coordinatrice Spoke 2;
Marco Alderighi | Professore Ordinario Università della Valle d’Aosta e coordinatore Spoke 4

Space to enterprises

During the lunch break, the Poster Session of the Line A Mezzogiorno projects was held, an opportunity for company representatives to present their NODES-funded projects and make connections with the other protagonists of innovation in the South!

The following then took the floor with pitches on the research projects of the winning companies of the ‘Linea A Mezzogiorno’ cascade calls:

Leonardo Rescio | Licofarma | ARIADNE
Roberto Esposito | Isuschem srl | C.A.U.S.A.
Elena Destro | Associazione Italiana per la ricerca industriale (AIRI) | UMARI
Elisa Bouccin | Liferesult | SILVER MOUNTAIN
Giovanni Tricarico | Leader Società Cooperativa Consortile | SWIM
Pavel Kiselev | Mater | EXTRACITRUS
Carmen Porcaro | Consorzio Campale Stabile | TerraFertilis
Francesco Amato | Latitudo 40 srl | ARBOREA

Space to research

In the concluding part of the event, speeches were given that recounted the results of the University of Basilicata's research activities to date:

for Spoke 2 - Innovative methods for the recovery and valorisation of agroforestry waste:
- Alessandro Santarsiere
- Anna Santarsiero
- Nadia Benedetto
- Immacolata Faraone
- Tania Petraglia

In these speeches, we discovered the research that is being carried out on pomegranates and the properties that this fruit, also cultivated in Lucania, contains.