#RoundGRIP interviews: Cristina Prandi talks about the strength of the green community, green technologies and sustainable industry

On the occasion of the first stop of Round GRIP, Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Turin Cristina Prandi, coordinator of Spoke 2 - Green technologies and sustainable industries, shared some of the objectives of the activities implemented by Spoke 2, completely dedicated to the development of green technologies and coordinated by the University of Turin together with its partners.

« We deal with everything related to environmental sustainability and especially the development of new technologies that enable the recycling of materials in the most sustainable way possible » explained Prandi. « Spoke 2 is dimensionally large, with many partners, and we are creating an important community of dialogue between research organisations and industry. » In fact, the main operational line of Spoke's activities aims at creating strong synergies between the world of work and the world of academic research, a fundamental collaboration to accelerate the development of sustainable solutions and innovative technologies that can transform industries in the area in a green way.

Speaking about the objectives of the project, Cristina Prandi expressed the hope of developing a common language between the different stakeholders. And the event on 13 March was built to meet this intention: « We have put a lot of work into this event, which is focused on content and networking. It is strategic to create a knowledge transfer chain from basic research, mainly developed in universities, to industrial research. » The first stop of Round GRIP was in fact the beginning of a long journey of meetings and exchanges with the intention of consolidating these collaborations. The event, which was held at the Environment Park in Turin, was attended by over 100 key figures from the business and research worlds of the NODES ecosystem.

Creating a network of companies within the project « is fundamental: at a general level and also at the level of the country system. We are trying to find this point of dialogue with companies that allows the valorisation of excellent research done in universities with the needs of companies » Prandi added. Finding operational points of dialogue that enhance academic research in response to the needs of companies is essential for both parties.