iNEST Cross-cutting Activity #2 - Deliverable Milestone 17

Interconnected Nord-Est Innovation Ecosystem Cross-Cutting Activity #2 Creation of a network of joint strategic labs between universities and companies Deliverable DCC2.1 – April 2023 Report on Activity plan and State of the art Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca Finanziato dall'Unione europea Next Generation EU Italiadomani P I A N O N A Z I O N A L E D I R I P R E S A E R E S I L I E N Z A Cover image: Piero Dorazio - Green Horn, 1965 The artist and the scientist, according to Dorazio, propose two different but parallel paths: they broaden knowledge, working more for the future than for the present. "I don't try to educate the viewer about the function of color, but rather to complete my own education on its possibilities." (from "Piero Dorazio" by Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco - Officina Edizioni - Roma, 1966). Interconnected Nord-Est Innovation Ecosystem Cross-Cutting Activity #2 Creation of a network of joint strategic labs between universities and companies Deliverable DCC2.1 – April 2023 Report on Activity plan and State of the art 12 15 18 23 25 29 34 36 38 2 Abstract 1 3 Introduction 2 7 Planning of activities 3 12 State of the Art 4 41 References 2 Leader Affiliates 1 Abstract Lab Villages are real infrastructures, well-known in academic contributions (Adegbile et al., 2021; Borah and Ellwood, 2022; Meissner et al., 2022), deployed in physical spaces, where people coming both from academia and research institutions and from companies join their efforts and act to create advanced products, services, or innovation artifacts. The nature of these infrastructures is not necessarily uniform, e.g., they can be traditional, physical joint laboratories as well as software infrastructures. The specific characteristics of the outcomes of the different labs may also vary a lot, depending on the specific agreements decided case by case and place by place. They can be discussion groups on common tasks, live demos on specific topics, or, in many cases, real prototypes being developed (Oliver, 2022). The iNEST project aims at boosting such an initiative, contributing to the advancement of the lab villages spread in the Triveneto territory. Its ultimate goal is to create a network of lab villages and to suitably connect them in such a way that companies may establish fruitful interactions with those ones that better match their interests/needs. In addition, some reference models of lab village will be identified, and the interactions with the other transversal activities (spin-off and startup, lifelong learning, and public engagement) will be investigated. University Partners 2 Introduction In order to develop a close relationship with the territory and the enterprises, universities and research institutions started promoting a different model of collaboration between universities and companies centered on lab villages. This approach, that follows the so-called trend towards the “Entrepreneurial University” (Etzkowitz, 2004), is well-known since the beginning of this century and it has several forms of realization. A lab village is a hub of joint laboratories for advanced research and development, where university researchers, postdocs, master and PhD students, and R&D company employees work together, in a continuative and systematic way, by sharing know-how and research structures with the aim of contributing to the development of the territory (Meissner et al., 2022). In these shared laboratories, universities and companies jointly identify the areas of common interest and define scientific and technological roadmaps that, on the one hand, bring into play the high-profile research expertise of the universities and, on the other hand, actually impact on the strategic lines of companies. Projects originate from this common ground and not from specific, contingent problems that companies have to face or from calls for projects from public agencies. One important aspect that is worth pointing out about this model is that by working together in the labs, companies and research institutions combine their approaches and gain a common view about innovation. Researchers understand the importance of market drivers in order to produce sustainable products and artifacts; companies acquire a vision of the roadmaps of the research, with important insights on their strategic developments. The iNEST project aims at promoting the creation of new lab villages and strengthening existing ones by expanding already established laboratories and instituting new ones. Moreover, a major effort will be devoted to foster collaboration among lab villages. The ultimate goal is to create a network of university-company lab villages, physically distributed over the territories of our regions, and to suitably connect them in such a way that companies may establish fruitful interactions with those ones that better match their interests/needs. In fact, there are several factors that could be exploited in a territorial distributed collaboration (Fraser and Mancl, 2021). Existing lab villages already cover many areas of interest of the project, ranging from advanced mechatronics and additive manufacturing to metallurgy and surface technology of advanced materials, from big data, IoT, and cybersecurity to machine learning, deep learning, and data analytics, from AI for human-robot collaboration to virtual and augmented reality, from social computing to digital media. 3 4 IAs for their operating mechanisms, they include modelling and simulation methods and techniques, the development of physical and virtual prototypes, including some automatic lines, live demos, and digital twins. These artifacts have often been cited as “boundary objects”, underlying the fact that they can facilitate the collaboration (Caccamo et al., 2022). A special attention is given to live demos and digital twins. The former consists of some sort of learning factories that make it possible to generate and experiment use cases of new technologies for the implementation of the digital transition. They make essential use of AI, robotics, IoT, and big data tools and techniques. The latter develop a digital twin of a physical system, a product, or a process, that makes it possible to reduce the design, development, implementation, and maintenance costs, to support process optimization, and to habilitate advanced functions (such as, for instance, advanced automation and predictive maintenance) and new business models. Moreover, thanks to the cooperation of university researchers and R&D company employees in the joint projects, the outcomes of the work done in the labs can be tested in the field through pilot application projects that can make products and services evolve faster with a trial-and-error mode. In this way, a sort of codesign with end users of what is developed within the joint laboratories is generated, which, in turn, improves the final results and accelerates product and process innovation. All these activities are paired with training activities for PhD students and young researchers as well as for R&D company employees. These training activities are not occasional, but a distinctive feature of the lab profile. Lab villages may host basic or advanced courses, tutorials, and seminars, possibly tailored to different kinds of audiences. Depending on the topics, we may have speakers who come from university or from companies. Creating a shared workplace, suitable for pre-investment trials In other words, what is being proposed is a breakdown of barriers (including cultural ones) that prevent the worlds of research and production from communicating with each other. The projects outlined in the previous paragraph involve the creation of a true shared working environment for the players, an environment that also includes physical shared spaces. Such an environment is fundamental for the so-called “last mile”, the final step in the supply chain preceding the introduction of innovations to the market (Caccamo, 2020; Doloreux et al., 2023). The first real step that can promote the creation of a shared work environment is the identification of issues of shared interest. In the lines of work expected by the iNEST, it will be necessary to find room for those spheres which the companies have recognized as being of particular interest. It is not redundant to underline that this interest on behalf of the companies is often driven by reasons far different from those of researchers in their chosen research goals. 5 In other words, the trajectories of research and those of the market do not always correspond, with the first group being inspired by curiosity for knowledge and technological development, and the second group by concrete demands posed by potential customers, which can in fact be satisfied through the introduction of innovations. Moreover, this figure is furtherly complicated by the institutional side of the ecosystem: the governments may put other requirements on the table (Etzkowitz and Leydersdorff, 1997). For the concrete construction of the iNEST Ecosystem, this alignment and verification phase with the institutions and the manufacturing world will be performed following an initial stage (the subject of this proposal), whereby the proponent consortium is established and the skills most suited to development of the Ecosystem are identified. It will be necessary then to envisage real “testbeds” suited to experimentation. This means environments in which the companies (also those not involved in the research projects) trial the innovations before investing in their creation or purchase, to then propose them to the market. Such a mechanism is in great demand also in the latest European programs, as Europe sees it as a way whereby SMEs can equip themselves with innovations that otherwise would not be within their reach, in a sort of “democratization” of innovation. Preparing the research environment to support development of the region Historically, it has always been thought that interaction between research and businesses takes place in a unidirectional manner, from the side that holds the knowledge (the research world) to the side that utilizes the know-how and takes it into the market (the companies). Plenty of evidence shows that this model was strongly weakened in the last decades by a series of factors, including global competition and reduction in public funding (De Wit-De Vries et al., 2019). What today appears as the best reality fit is a more articulated model, with reciprocal bidirectional exchange of knowledge between businesses and research, with a corporate role that is anything but marginal. In this model, researchers supply knowledge derived from trajectories of the international scientific community and mediates it with what the companies absorb from the market. It regards, therefore, a mechanism that involves even levels of contribution from the different players which enable non-linear processes but anticipate complex situations wherein the flow of information between sources is merged in a particular manner (Cai and Liu, 2020). Thus, the goal is not only to put the companies in a condition to “receive” knowledge from scientific institutions, but also to enable reciprocal merging of knowledge, which allows the companies to learn from the research institutions and to the research institutions to learn from the market. 12 4 State of the Art The following sections provide an up-to-date picture of the current situation at each spoke with respect to existing experiences of joint university-company laboratories. 4.1 University of Bolzano The Lab Village at UNIBZ will take advantage of the experience gathered at the NOI Tech Park of Bolzano, which acts as a collector of University laboratories, start-ups and R&D of high-tech companies. UNIBZ engages around 100 researchers, technicians and students in nine laboratories at NOI Techpark: from food technology to digitalization, from renewable energy to energy efficiency, the Tech Park is in line with the local Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) of the Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano. Figure 1 - NOI Tech Park Campus map 13 Laboratory for Human-centered Technologies and Machine Intelligence: researches methods and develops technologies of embodied artificial intelligence, acting autonomously but also in interaction with humans; Field Robotics South-Tyrol Lab (FiRST Lab): conducts applied interdisciplinary research at the intersection of “mechatronics, robotics and automation” and “agro-forestry” applications; Sensor System Technologies Lab (SST): develops technologies and manufactures devices and sensors and integrated solutions for the acquisition of monitoring data (IoT); Bioenergy and Biofuels Laboratories: focuses on energy production from biomass and waste materials through traditional combustion processes and innovative ones in a circular economy perspective; Laboratory for Electric Drives and Fluid Machines: studies clean power generation systems, optimisation of hybrid energy and storage systems, hybrid/electric powertrains for automotive and industrial applications; Laboratory for Agroforestry Engineering: conceptualizes develops and tests mechatronic components for the agricultural and forestry sector, such as some specificallydeveloped measuring tools for materials and safety; Food Technology Laboratory: investigates new extraction processes using innovative technologies based on supercritical fluids and runs pilot studies to optimize the production of ingredients; Laboratory of Buildings Physics: optimizes the final heat and cooling uses in several building systems, including industrial and commercial buildings to optimize well being and productivity of people in the built environment; Laboratory for Fluid Mechanics (LTFD): studies various aspects of fluid mechanics, industrial flows, hydraulic machines and hydraulic construction and their interaction with the environment; Smart Data Factory: develops solutions to complex problems in the areas of intelligent data management and in the co-design and co-development of IT applications that focus on the intelligent use of data. The facilities involved in the iNEST project are dedicated to the digitalization of the industrial production, the optimization of energy production and its energy management, green mobility, circular approach in the resource management and novels solutions for energy storage and energy vectors: The NOI Tech Park is also connected to other networks of companies, like the Automotive Excellence network, and research institutions, like EURAC and Fraunhofer Italia, to strengthen the collaborative approach on the topics of production sustainability and green mobility. UNIBZ also includes competence centers that enrich the cross-contamination between the research institutions and the territory: the competence center for Economic, Ecological and Social Sustainability, whose main objective is to study the economic, environmental and social aspects of policies and actions for the sustainable development of South Tyrol so as to develop and implement innovative approaches and solutions; the competence center for Family Business Management, whose goal is to be a reference point, both locally and internationally, for research, education and knowledge transfer activities in the field of family business. In addition, best practice examples on the education and life-long learning activities on digital manufacturing, like the Smart Mini Factory, are located at the premises of the NOI Tech Park. In addition, the NOI Tech Park can also exploit the skills gathered in the SMACT project by strengthening the positive aspects and by solving the limitations that emerged in this experience. During the next tasks of the iNEST Cross-cutting activity #2, the aim will be to identify the strength and the weaknesses of the current contamination approach and to identify specific development areas to foster the sustainability of the novel and advanced industrial processes, as well as to further involve local stakeholders and industrial players. In particular, the most recent digital methodologies and approaches will be integrated in the available laboratories with a specific attention to the tools required for the development of virtual collaboration spaces aimed at the cooperation with the network of lab villages of the iNEST project. In addition, since the energy demand of the automated production techniques, and the electrification of mobility and logistics represent a critical issue in the current energy scenario, the collaboration with companies and research institutions will also embrace topics related to novel efficient and low-energy solutions to be optimally integrated with the available resources in a circular economy approach; the goal is also to supply the advanced industrial production devices and infrastructure with smart, interconnected and distributed sensors to monitor the performance and energetic sustainability of a production process and of the related mobility issues. Big data analysis tools and machine learning techniques will be proposed for data elaboration, while heuristics and/or linear programming optimization techniques will be adopted for defining the optimal management of the industrial production line on an industrial and energetic point of view. 14 An overreaching approach comprising energy storage solutions, logistics, smart grids and adaptation of the automated production lines to the requirements of the industrial users will drive the development of a novel paradigm of the industrial plant that can boost the competitiveness of the industry in the territory. The NOI Tech Park represents an interesting candidate also for the activation of novel solutions in the perspective of the lab village network with peculiar characteristics that respond to the local environment and to the industrial tissue. 4.2 Spoke 2 – University of Trento The development of medicine and medical technologies represent not only the main interest of iNEST Spoke 2, but crosses the entire local ecosystem in which Spoke 2 is inserted. In particular the University of Trento Strategic Plan 2024-25 recognizes the importance of consolidating and expanding innovative research in the field of medical technologies, biotechnology and digital medicine. The plan individuates a specific cluster "Life Sciences and Medicine", which aims to coordinate the various activities of the University in the field of Life Sciences and Medicine, enhancing the interdisciplinary approach and contributions. The purpose is to actively contribute to the development of a territorial technological pole on Life Sciences, in collaboration with the Autonomous Province of Trento, but paying attention to the other actors of the system both on the specific local territory and on the neighbors. This commitment is in line with the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) 2021-2027 of the Autonomous Province of Trento, which aims to support Health, nutrition and lifestyles, among the other three priority areas: Sustainability, mountains and energy resources; ICT & digital transformation; Smart industry; and the cross-cutting areas represented by digital technologies and sustainability. Medium target term declared by the University to become a national reference point for technological innovation in the field of medicine, which obviously requires a specific commitment in the two main training pillars, the medical and the engineering. In this vein, we recognize the development of the five years course in Medicina e Chirurgia in close collaboration with the University of Verona (now in its third year) and the most recent commitment with the Universities of Verona and Modena Reggio Emilia for the establishment of an Inter University School in Biomedical Engineering. 15 Right now the academic consortium offers a three year course titled Human Centered Medical System Engineering and is planning a master degree in Bioengineering for Personalized Medicine. In addition, the University of Trento offers excellence in many fields of life sciences both in the departments and in the research centers mainly dedicated to this topic, such as CIMEC, CIBIO, DiSPCO, and in the numerous laboratories present both in the humanities and scientific departments. These include robotics with particular reference to biomedical applications, Artificial Intelligence, Regenerative Medicine, Computational Biology, Physiological Systems Modeling, Comparative Effectiveness Research, etc. In the field of medicine and health technology development, the University of Trento has an established track record on personalized and precision medicine on original clinical research, European projects, clinical innovation and so on. It is taking advantage of consolidated clinical research collaborations and on the new achievements in genome editing, RNA therapies, and computational and system biology, working with key players as Fondazione COSBI and the local Health Trust (APSS). Among the others, main research fields focused on Cardiac diseases, Orthopedics, Image guided surgery, neurodegenerative and rare diseases, cancer. A consortium between APSS and the three Engineering Departments of the University of Trento has developed the Living Lab AUSILIA for autonomous and independent living even in frailty (http://ausilia.tn.it/). From this reality were born a series of experiences of shared living supported by technology and are still the subject of study and development with associations and service cooperatives and national projects (AHA PONS). The establishment of the medical school now opens a new season of collaboration and interest in clinical research and innovation. More recently, the University of Trento has launched two initiatives in the field of health technologies such as the Augmented Operating Room and the Interdepartmental Institute of Robotics (IDRA). Both of these collaborative research laboratories address the dual role of research and training. The two living laboratories integrating cutting-edge technology aim to contribute to clinical and industrial improvement in the field of assistive medicine and surgical science. Finally, University of Trento has a consolidated network of collaboration with many local, national and international enterprises, and has been cofounder of innovative start ups in the biomedical field. 16 Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK) is operating at a high national level in the fields of Digital Health and Wellbeing and of Emergencies Health. TrentinoSalute4.0 Competence Center is the Center of Competence on Digital Health in Trentino Province which was formally established with an Act of the Local Government n. 2412 on 20th December 2016. TrentinoSalute4.0 includes the Autonomous Province of Trento (PAT) through the Department of Health and Social Policies, in the role of decision maker, the Provincial Healthcare Trust (APSS) in the role of provider of the service and the FBK as a research institute. TS4.0 also involves citizens, health professionals and sector companies according to a quadruple helix approach. TreC Personal Health Record is the TreC-Ricerca platform for defining, testing and integrating digital health services to the citizens. TreC-Ricerca framework is based on the widely used TreC platform in Trentino Province (currently being used by over 300.000 citizens) to manage their eHealth data and access a collection of digital health services. Currently, TreC-Ricerca allows for defining and testing new digital health services and applications in a real-world type of research including DTx applications. Currently it is being used in various domains such as in experimentation of innovative telemedicine and digital therapeutics services in the field of Pregnancy Management and Breast Cancer. These ongoing experimentations are supported by two main types of digital excipients namely Virtual Reality and AI-empowered Virtual Coaching Chatbots and predictive models. The digital active ingredients conveyed through these types of excipients can support different psychological conditions through the digital implementation of evidence-based methods such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques (CBT). The TreC-Ricerca approach enables the execution of decentralized trials and real-world evidence-based research. Major ongoing transitions such as demographic, ecological and digital transformations are at the heart of modern health protection programs. Population aging, climate change and migration flows are constantly changing the burden and type of disease, putting a strain on health systems and requiring more efficient, personalized and pervasive solutions. New opportunities are given by technological development, but these can also give rise to risks and opportunities in the same way. The need for a prompt reaction and continuous research and updating push towards an increasingly structured connection between the different actors of the system: academy and research, production system, health institution and patient-citizens. The iNEST Spoke 2 consortium offers a further opportunity for synergy to improve the ecosystem's ability to become an attractive hub and a generating center for market opportunities and innovative health solutions. 17 18 Particularly, according to the competences and experiences already present and the established networks, it can be identified as a great potentiality in the development of new ICT based approaches to health, by proposing innovation at different levels from citizenpatient assistance, to innovative and personalized therapy. The iNEST Spoke 2 Lab Village will be able to take advantage of this widespread and constantly updated scientific and technological environment by focusing its action in the field of e-Health, thus contributing both to the development of a new class of companies for health solutions (product and services), and to improving the capabilities of the health system by pushing appropriate innovation, supporting educational paths for both medicine and engineering by offering cutting-edge laboratories and triggering innovative research opportunities. 4.3 Spoke 3 – University of Udine UNIUD Lab Village is the center for advanced applied research of the University of Udine, created with the support of the Ministry of University and Research, Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, and Fondazione Friuli. Housed in a shared facility of 9,600 square meters, it is a space for technological innovation, where academia and industry collaborate on joint projects and share infrastructures, know-how, and resources for the development of the territory. The hub spaces are available to researchers, students, young talents, professionals, and local businesses to share knowledge and skills, test the latest tools, and witness the frontier of technological advancement in action. Launched in February 2020, UNIUD Lab Village currently features 30 laboratories – 24 run directly by the University, 3 by companies, and 3 that are joint university-company laboratories – and includes collaborations with Confindustria Udine and the Area Science Park of Trieste. The companies currently involved are beanTech, Datamind, Digi&Met (Danieli Automation), and LOD. In the Lab Village, university and companies are committed to carry out joint projects in research, training, and technological transfer. The aim is to facilitate direct interaction among universities, companies, and the territory, contributing to the innovation of the regional systems of production and therefore to the economic growth of the region. The University laboratories refer to four departments: Polytechnic of Engineering and Architecture (DPIA); Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (DMIF); Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal sciences (DI4A); Humanities and Cultural Heritage (DIUM). 19 The Village is constantly expanding, hosting technological labs and centers for the design and development of industrial enterprises. The existing laboratories carry out advanced research in a wide range of scientific fields, including all the topics addressed by iNEST Spoke 3: energy and environmental engineering, mechatronics and robotics, materials, artificial intelligence, data science, and machine learning. The research activities of the iNEST project will therefore significantly benefit from the support and the interaction with the laboratories. On the other hand, iNEST will offer the opportunity to further strengthen UNIUD Lab Village, in particular by establishing a network of lab villages across the Triveneto region, for companies to set up stable and profitable interactions. In the following, an overview of the laboratories housed in UNIUD Lab Village (Fig. 2) is given. Figure 2: Map of the laboratories housed in UNIUD Lab Village. AeroUD – Mechanical Engineering Team; FAP – Laboratory for environmental & process fluid mechanics; Turbomachinery and Energy Systems Lab. Laboratory of Biosensors and Biosignals (BioSens Lab); EMCLab (Advanced Simulation and Applied Electromagnetics Laboratory); IoT and distributed systems Lab; Power Electronics Lab; UniUD Sailing Lab; Advanced 3D Lab; Thermal Systems Lab. Laboratory of Advanced Mechatronics (LAMA FVG) Born six years ago from the collaboration between the universities of Udine and Trieste and the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), this center of excellence for additive manufacturing and mechatronics was the first laboratory established at UNIUD Lab Village. The lab deals with technology transfer in the areas of Industry 4.0, focusing, in particular, on advanced industrial automation, metal 3D printing, and digital twin applications. Laboratories of Energetic and Environmental Engineering (LINEA) These laboratories carry out research on advanced numerical simulation and experimental analysis techniques, that are used to improve understanding and modelling of mass, momentum, and heat transport in industrial and environmental applications, with particular reference to fluid machines, energy systems, and multiphase fluid dynamics. LINEA includes the following laboratories: Internet of Things (IOT) UniUD Lab Village hosts 7 laboratories that study the enabling technologies that make the concept of the "Internet of Things" real and concrete. They gather several skills applied to IoT: electronics, information processing, electromagnetic modelling, industrial technical physics, architecture, product innovation, design and methods for improving sailing performances. The laboratories involved in IoT research and applications are the following: Laboratories of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems (AI2S) The three joint university-company laboratories are dedicated to artificial intelligence and are the result of a collaboration between the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics and local companies and centers operating in the field: beanTech, DIH Udine, IP4FVG, and Area Science Park. 20 Unsupervised Machine Learning (UML); Artificial Vision and Machine Learning (AVML); Machine Learning and Data Analytics (MLDA). Cybersecurity Laboratory (Cyber); Virtual and Augmented Reality and Computer Vision (XRV-Lab); Autonomous Systems; Intelligence and Security; Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Collaboration Laboratory (AI4HRC). Laboratory of Applied Geology; Laboratory of Geotechnics; Laboratory of Hydraulics (LABIDRA); Road Lab (LASTRA). Official Laboratory of Trial on Materials and Structures (PROMAS); Sensory Analysis Laboratory (LABAS). They are available to young talents and local businesses to test enabling technologies 4.0 and to meet and discuss with industry experts the opening of new pathways of digital transformation. The goal is to sustain the acceleration of innovation in the region and to make it attractive for young researchers, also coming from other regions and abroad. The laboratories included in this area are: Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud, and Internet of Things Laboratories (SMACT3) The five laboratories housed in this area work in synergy between the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics and companies and institutions of the Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, to foster joint projects and training initiatives. The laboratories, listed below, cover the fields of cybersecurity, virtual, augmented reality and computer vision, autonomous systems, intelligence and security, Internet of Things, and Human-Robot Collaboration: Laboratories of Environment and Territory (LATE) UNIUD Lab Village hosts four laboratories dealing with experimental and numerical studies in the areas of applied geology and geotechnics (including hydrogeological instability and rock materials), of fluvial and maritime hydraulics, and of road safety: Laboratories of Architecture, Building Construction Techniques, Research, Innovation, Sustainability (LATERIS) LATERIS includes two labs that carry out research on building materials (including natural materials such as raw earth, bricks, wood and local stones), as well as on the quality and control of processes and products in the construction sector: 21 I-Shell – Inclusive Smart Home, this lab is meant to provide developers with a flexible environment where they can test experimental technological solutions, allowing them to rapidly arrange the environment as needed. Moreover, researchers will be able to collect real-time data, not only on user behavior, but also on the status of the building (e.g., energy consumption), and device performance. This living lab will also be used to involve end-users (including all groups of users with special needs) throughout the design life-cycle, to gather continuous feedback and suggestions for improving products and services, so as to better meet users’ requirements. Finally, the living lab can be used to experiment with new technologies and business models. For example, a subscription model for smart home access services could be tested and refined. 5.0 – Workplace of the future lab, this lab is meant to address the emerging issues of work in the digital age and Industry 5.0. It is conceived as an open space for research and innovation, where researchers, professionals, and entrepreneurs can experiment, using a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach, new work models, technologies, and strategies to adapt to the challenges of the digital world. In particular, it will tackle research in the areas of Collaborative Robotics and Advanced Automation (5.0 humancentric advanced collaborative automation), 5.0 Experimentation Space (XR and AI in Industry 5.0), Training space (life-long learning and updating). @School: places and technologies for education, instruction, and school inclusion, this living lab is dedicated to technologies for education, instruction, and school inclusion and it consists in a physical and virtual space where teachers, students, parents, researchers, and technology experts join to create, experiment, and evaluate innovative technological solutions to improve the school experience and promote inclusion. (Importantly, at the moment the Spoke 5 does not feature a dedicated location where the research questions pertaining to innovative education and instruction can be investigated. While this research area can be addressed with field studies in schools, in these contexts it is hard to systematically investigate the effects of innovative technological solutions on the learning processes of either young and older students, and effectively involve other relevant stakeholders, i.e., teachers and parents. Innovative proposal for the Lab Village The iNEST CC2 Lab Village will provide the unique opportunity to overcome the limitations illustrated above and realize a prestigious center that integrates different research environments in a unique shared space where researchers, practitioners and entrepreneurs can work and innovate side by side, that will be also ready to involve the local community. The Lab Village will mainly comprise three flexible, advanced and cross-disciplinary Living Labs: 28 Moreover, the foreseen Lab Village will feature a large coworking space, where the researchers involved in the iNEST project can work together in a flexible and agile way, so as to favor inter-disciplinary research. Notably, this coworking space will be open also to professionals outside the Academia, thereby promoting the cross-disciplinary collaboration between researchers and enterprises. Finally, in the foreseen Lab Village exclusive space will be devoted to technological transfer activities addressed to the local enterprises and to dissemination events involving citizens, with the final aim to create awareness of the research activities carried out within the iNEST project and their practical implications for the community. 4.6 Spoke 6 – University of Venezia Ca' Foscari The innovative perspective Spoke 6 “Tourism, culture, and creative industries” is the intertwined way of dealing with three of the most important regional industries. In our vision, Tourism, cultural, and creative industries are all interconnected and can work together to create synergies that benefit all three sectors (Liu, 2018; Jelinčić, 2021). They can work together in various ways. Cultural and creative industries can provide unique and authentic experiences for tourists, such as music, dance, crafts, and cuisine. These experiences can attract tourists and create demand for cultural and creative products and services and generate positive word-of-mouth advertising. Cultural and creative industries can also contribute to the development of sustainable tourism by promoting cultural and environmental conservation and by providing employment and income opportunities for local communities. On the other hand, tourism can provide a market for cultural and creative industries by promoting and selling their products and services to tourists. This can increase sales and revenue for these industries and help to preserve and promote local culture. Furthermore, tourism can provide a source of inspiration and creativity for cultural and creative industries by exposing them to new ideas, cultures, and trends. This can lead to the development of innovative and original products and services that can be marketed to tourists and locals alike. Overall, the synergy between tourism, cultural, and creative industries can lead to economic, social, and cultural benefits for communities and individuals, while also preserving and promoting local heritage and identity. Despite these potential synergies, in the Northeast the three sectors remain separate, and there is often little dialogue between the cultural and creative industries as well. Opportunities for meeting, comparing, cross-fertilization, and collaborative innovation among organizations in these three sectors are scarce. 29 30 AIKU is an action research center, dedicated to the interaction between culture, creative processes and the business world. Through cultural projects, art interventions, and corporate museum, AIKU transfers the results of university research by activating the creativity of artists and cultural professionals to stimulate cultural change and strategic innovation in firms. Venywhere is a project created in collaboration with the Venice Foundation, Ca 'Foscari University and IUAV, with the aim of ensuring urban renewal in Venice and creating a sustainable alternative to mass tourism. Venywhere is a platform that offers solutions for remote and creative workers to stay in Venice well integrated with the local community. Upskill is an innovative enterprise that aims to bring together technological innovation and the artisan world to accompany labor transformations, was born in 2017. In Venice, they are working on projects involving cultural and artisan enterprises with a digital perspective, for example, collaborating with traditional artisan enterprises specializing in historical production. Fablab Venice is a digital fabrication laboratory open to makers, artisans and creative people of all kinds. Their mission is to make available a set of tools for digital manufacturing to anyone wishing to see their ideas realized. Innovation focus in Spoke 6. Even though the digitalization of tourism, culture, and arts has opened up new opportunities in terms of business models, products, services, and processes, here social and cultural processes as well as technological ones play a key role in these sectors. Here, social and cultural innovation is a key concept in order to address the challenges of innovation in these sectors. Social and Cultural innovation is a process of creating new ideas, products, or services that have cultural and social significance and impacts. It involves the development of new cultural practices, beliefs, and values that can be shared by a group of people. Social and Cultural innovation can be fostered through open innovation and improving welfare state. In other words, Social and cultural innovation is the process of developing and implementing new ideas that address social and cultural challenges and opportunities. It can be driven by various actors, such as firms, universities, individuals, communities, organizations, governments, or collaborations among them. State of the art in preparation for a future Venetian Lab Village. Actually, in Venice and its mainland there is nothing similar to a Lab Village. However, many initiatives with similar characteristics or characterized by single pieces of a Lab Village exist and operate effectively. Here we present most of them. This is not an exhaustive list, but it is comprehensive enough to understand the state of the art in the Venetian area in terms of projects and spaces where universities and firms collaborate to create innovation: The M9 Business Center is an innovative business location designed to meet the most diverse needs of multinationals and companies. In fact, the layout and structure of the spaces are designed not only to enhance the business opportunities of each company, but also to create opportunities for meeting and sharing between different firms. The Business Center offers exclusive solutions on a space with offices for private use, furnished and equipped with advanced technology tools, as well as meeting and coworking areas, training rooms and common break spaces. SerenDPT is a Benefit Corporation with a clear mission: to help repopulate Venice by supporting the creation of startups that will produce high quality jobs in the historic city. It is co-created by MITdesignX (Boston) and SerenDP (BCorp) and is headquartered in the H3 Factory inside the ex-church of Saints Cosmas and Damian on the Giudecca island in Venice. VeniSIA is the accelerator of Ca' Foscari University of Venice, focused on startups facing climate change and other environmental challenges. VeniSIA is a sustainability innovation accelerator, based in Venice and devoted to the development of business ideas and technology solutions able to face climate change and other environmental challenges. In 2015, the City of Venice created the Forte Marghera Foundation with the aim of managing the Fort, of enhancing and developing the cultural and natural heritage of local fortifications and generally of historical military assets. The Nonprofit Foundation carries out research, training and professional upgrading, organizes cultural initiatives, promotes co-financed interventions with public funds, consulting and planning in the field of maintenance, recovery and re-use of the Heritage. Yunus Social Business Centre - Ca’ Foscari University of Venice is active since April 2020. Through activities of research and advising, it stands to spread Social Business principles and theories, according to Nobel Peace Prize Muhammad Yunus’ lessons. It is accredited by the Yunus Centre of Dhaka (Bangladesh) and it is part of a Global Network. It promotes a concept of social economy with the aim of combining economic and environmental sustainability with social purposes. CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo is a project headquartered in Giudecca Island since 2016. During the last seven years, the contemporary arts intervention project within the “Consorzio di Cantieristica Minore Veneziana” has been calibrating itself, identifying itself more and more towards a permanent and daily collaboration with the local artisans, almost merging into a single vision, in a single direction that daily aims to preserve. 31 Founded in 1898 by a bequest and actually property of and managed by the City of Venice, the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa is responsible for contemporary art and organizes exhibitions and meetings, dedicated to the promotion of young artists and the presentation of internationally recognized artists. Biennale College is La Biennale di Venezia’s project dedicated to the practice of young people in the artistic fields and in the activities of the organizational structure of the Biennale. Encouraging young talents, offering them the opportunity to work side by side with the masters to develop “creations” that will be part of our Artistic Programs: this is the spirit of the Biennale College, a well-fitted bridge that allows young people who wish to engage in one of the arts to do so under the finest conditions that an international institution can offer. Creative Nest at Casa Robegan (Treviso) is a museum as well as a social context that harbors meaning and converts it into creative resources. At the core of the nest is a complex process that keeps together and coordinates all the different activities and services required to make interesting and interested people meet so that something new can happen. Homo Faber Event is an annual major cultural exhibition dedicated to fine craftsmanship. Organized by the Michelangelo Foundation, the international event celebrates master craftsmanship, seeking to increase recognition and visibility for master artisans. A showcase of craftsmanship excellence, the exhibition shines a light on a rich diversity of materials and crafts, from paper making to wood working, from the rarest artisanal techniques to some of the most iconic examples of contemporary craftsmanship, and explores their links to the world of creativity and design. Opificio Querini is a part of Fondazione Querini Stampalia, a cultural institution in Venice founded in 1869. Opificio Querini was established in 2020 and today it networks the Foundation, nine companies and two ambassadors of excellence: AMDL Cricle studio by Michele De Lucchi and VeniSIA AMDL Circle. It is a multidisciplinary studio renowned for its humanistic approach to architecture and design. Guggenheim Intrapresæ is a dynamic and animated community, founded on exchange and stimulating dialogue which inspires new projects. Their members reinforce the strong bond between Guggenheim foundation brand and art history. Therefore, they transform social moments into opportunities to move closer to art. zolforosso is an artist-run studio and collective established in 2017. It currently hosts 14 artists across two labs. zolforosso aims not only to explore contemporary art production and personal research but to instigate new ways of making art through active dialogue, collective participation and shared practices. 32 33 S.a.L.E. Docks is an independent space for arts and politics initiated in 2007 by a group of activists who decided to occupy an abandoned salt-storage docks in the heart of Venice. S.a.L.E. maintains two different dynamics: facilitating collaboration between local artists, citizens, and students; and developing projects with international art agents and artists. S.a.L.E. organizes seminars, exhibitions, workshops, con-research and public actions that experiment models of cultural production The GAD - Giudecca Art District is located on the Giudecca island of Venice. The Giudecca Art District is responsible for promoting and enhancing contemporary art in the industrial archeology spaces that host them. Its mission is to create research and work opportunities in correlation with artists from all over the world. The limited involvement of enterprises in innovation processes. Enterprises are often involved at the end of the innovation process as potential adopting customers; The limited involvement of high-tech firms, which could contribute to the development of new solutions for cultural, artistic, craft and tourism productions. the attraction of firms interested in developing live-demos or livinglabs. To do this, we will provide promotional actions of the facilities and opportunities available, so as to facilitate the access of firms to the Lab and its services; the valorization of the heritage of skills already available within the organizations listed in the mapping. To do this we plan promotional actions through events, seminars/workshops, shows, webinars, thematic tables; activation of a physical location (Lab Village) dedicated to the presentation of livedemos and the creation of living labs, associated with promotional events open to the public. Many of these cases represent living labs operating actively and innovatively at the intersection of art, culture and tourism. Others are live-demos of solutions produced and implemented elsewhere. However, the fragmentation and distribution of these experiences in different places in the city reduce their impact, both in terms of visibility and influence on local production processes. Weaknesses. In addition to the problems of fragmentation and excessive spatial distribution, the Venetian context presents two additional problems: 1. 2. Development actions. Aggregation of existing experiences and investment in attracting high-tech enterprises are the challenges of a Lab Village in Venice. To achieve these goals, the Lab Village development strategy includes: 1. 2. 3. Live demo Fabbrica del vino (FdV): FdV is an experimental laboratory for the development and demonstration of new technologies for the wine industry, with particular reference to digital technologies and Industria 4.0. Born with the idea of enhancing the ability of companies to acquire data and use them in decision-making processes, but above all to have scalable application cases for wine companiesfinal user. It is a site for testing and demonstrating data collection and processing systems, remote process control and process automation on small pilot plants. The laboratory will work in "connection" with the vineyard, drying facility and experimental cellar of Villa Eugenia, a production site equipped with the most advanced process control and management systems. Located in the former Magazzini Generali area (in the spaces adjacent to the ICE Laboratory Industrial Computer Engineering). Experimental winery ‘Villa Eugenia’: Villa Eugenia is an experimental winery equipped with 180 fermentation tanks of different sizes, varying from 5 L to 200 L, and four large size tanks of 800L, all adapted for standard red and white winemaking. It hosts state of the art sensing systems for rapid collection of compositional data on grape and wine, with possibility to transfer the data to FdV computational platform for data interpretation and modeling. An experimental fruttaio is also present, allowing to replicate typical conditions of grape drying, while temperature and light controlled environments allow to simulate stress conditions associated with transport and storage of wine and other foods/goods. A distillation plant is also available. The facility is located in the University pole of San Floriano, about 20 km from Verona, in the middle of the Valpolicella wine region, which greatly enhances the potential of this site as a hub for Lab village activities. The site also hosts a 75 seats lecture room for seminars and workshops. ICE Lab for Industria 4.0: The ICE (Industrial Computer Engineering) Lab https://www.icelab.di.univr.it/ is a physical space dedicated to Applied research, technology transfer and collaboration with local stakeholders. Created according to the dictates of Industry 4.0, ICE is focused on teaching, training and innovation, in close collaboration with local companies. The Lab is divided into several technological areas, each representing a type of production. A logistics system made up of a transport line and an AGV connects the different areas, thanks to an innovative software stack for control and monitoring. The ICE Lab is located in the area of the former Magazzini Generali, near Fiera di Verona. 4.7 Spoke 7 – University of Verona The Lab village cross cutting action of Spoke 7 will be centered on Smart agrifood. In particular, the types of infrastructures present are capable of delivering a wide range of opportunities for the fermented beverage industry (wine, beer, etc). The following facilities are present at the Spoke leader UniVR: 34 In addition to the above-mentioned facilities, present at UNIVR, other facilities are present within the Spoke through the connection with other Spoke participants, in particular within the UNIUD (Lab Village with Sensory and food processing labs, plus the Microbrewing facility), UNIVE (Strategy Innovation Hub), FEM (SMART Vineyard and Composting plant), UniPD (sparkling wine microvinification plant). Strengths of the Spoke 7 Lab Village existing situation The main strong point of the existing facilities lies in the high ability to address questions and problems of the beverage sector, with particular reference to the wine industry. This is particularly true for Villa Eugenia and FdV, whereas ICE Lab provides more general competences in the fields of process automation and artificial intelligence. Such a combination can provide great capabilities for innovation in the agrifood sector, with fermented beverage and wine in particular being a primary case study. At the same time, each facility on its own can provide further opportunities of interaction with private companies in a Lab village format: FvD for knowledge transfer, villa Eugenia for prototype testing and scale up, ICE Lab for development and testing of novel technologies for the agri-food sector, including novel sensing systems and robots for application in the field, during processing, and during storage. Weaknesses and improvement opportunities of the Spoke 7 Lab Village existing situation In the case of the FdV and Villa Eugenia facilities, the main weakness lies in the lack of dedicated personnel to develop and promote the activities of the sites. Consequently, Lab village activities could be also compromised. The recruitment of dedicated personnel (e.g. a technologist) should be considered. As for ICELab, this facility has well established expertise in industrial manufacturing, robotics and data handling, while previous experiences in the agri-food sector are quite limited. 35 36 4.8 Spoke 8 – University of Trieste In the following, we will describe the state of the art of initiatives related to Lab Villages in the area of Trieste. Given that both Spoke 8 and Spoke 9 are based in Trieste, there will be a significant overlap between this section and the following one. Trieste is the city in Europe with the highest density of researchers among the working population. There are two universities, a large number of public research institutions, one of the first technological parks of Italy, and the Headquarters of some major Italian companies. This context holds a great potential also for innovation and technology transfer, however still to be explored in its full extent. Trieste is also one of the major Italian harbors, the first in terms of volume of traffic, with the status of free port. Hence a significant portion of its economy is connected with the sea and maritime activities. The Lab Village initiative in Trieste needs to be unitary and to set its roots on the contest of activities already running - aiming at avoiding duplicates and boosting a systemic interaction in a networked fashion but with common shared goals. In the following paragraphs, we describe initiatives and institutions involved in the Trieste area in the technology transfer and in creating a link between academia and industry - related to but not overlapping the concept of lab village. For Spoke 8, we give more emphasis on initiatives related to blue growth. The Trieste Scientific and Technological Park, located in the hills nearby the city, was born in 1978, and since then managed by Area Science Park, a public research institution coordinating several innovation activities in the region, including IP4FVG (see below). The park has more than 80.000 square meters of R&D facilities, including some national and international research institutions (ICGEB, Elettra Sincrotrone, CNR), innovative start-ups and companies, for a total of more than 2700 workers. It also has some directly managed research activities (Genomics and Epigenomics and Data Engineering labs), and provides support for the creation and development of new start-ups. This thriving park sees the coexistence of several public and private research labs - some of which are former university spin off companies - but it does not feature lab-village facilities in which companies and academic and research staff work together on common applied research problems. In Trieste there are also few incubators, helping in the creation and in the initial phases of the life cycle of start ups. We mention here Innovation Factory, hosted in Area Science Park, BIC incubatori FVG, hosting 44 companies in the areas of ICT, Health, Maritime Technology, Energy and Sustainability, and Tourism. Recently this list has been extended by the Urban Center, a facility owned by Trieste municipality featuring a fablab, a contamination and meeting area and also hosting some startups. The Polo Tecnologico Alto Adriatico Andrea Galvani of Pordenone, is managing activities in the Urban Center (https://urbancenter.comune.trieste.it/gestione-urban-center/) as well as the FVG cluster for Life Sciences, coordinating both public and private research and economic stakeholders (https://www.polotecnologicoaltoadriatico.it/cluster-scienze-dellavita-fvg/). Within the Investment 3.1, under Mission 4 - Component 2 of the NRRP, the MUR financed the Technological Innovation Infrastructure project TRITION - TRIeste valley innovaTION hub, promoted by OGS, public research institution affiliated to Spoke 8. The aim of the project is to create in Trieste a technological infrastructure for innovation to strengthen the collaboration and connection between scientific bodies and SMEs operating in the fields of life sciences, artificial intelligence and energy transition. The main infrastructure output of the project will consist of three new laboratories specialized respectively in life sciences (named BioHighTech), artificial intelligence (DigitalHighTech) and energy transition (EnergyHighTech): the labs will be made available to scientific entities and private companies to foster shared projects. The Maritime Technology Cluster of Friuli Venezia Giulia region – also known as mareFVG, is a consortium with a growing number of private and public stakeholders, operating in the maritime technologies domain at regional and national level. MareFVG mission is to help public and private bodies of our territory, facilitating the dialogue between enterprises, research centers, education institutions, citizens and public administration, with reference to the maritime technologies domains: shipbuilding, boatbuilding, offshore, transports, infrastructures, logistics, services for navigation and yachting; thematic domain part of the broader Blue Economy field. It is also the primary regional actor of the S3 – research and innovation strategies for smart specialization for maritime technologies. 37