Milan, the Italian hub for knowledge, research and innovation

One year after the launch of an initiative called "50 projects to make Milan fly", Gianfelice Rocca, the President of Assolombarda - a union of small, medium and big enterprises in Lombardy - and the people in charge of several projects gathered in Milan to assess the targets so far achieved.

The 50 initiatives concern different fields, such as manufacturing, banking, health, energy, sustainability, startups, digital school and innovation. The main aim was to relaunch the companies involved as well as Milan and the whole Lombardy so that the bad stereotype of Italy as a disadvantaged country to implant business could be overcome.

The 50 projects are organized in 4 chapters, i.e. companies at the centre, Milan at the centre, the great chance and Assolombarda at the centre. They are conceived as an open platform, an incubator of ideas and solutions attracting other actors in order to create a network that from Milan may extend to the whole country.

The news concern the attention devoted to the activities outside the enterprise perimeter. In particular, core guidelines concerning the development and projection to the world of the Great Milan, in terms of an excellent venue for research, international density of human capital,territorial mobility and financial system.

Mr. Rocca himself declared that "the biggest challenge is to make the Great Milan a hub of knowledge, a quadrilateral made up of research, innovation, human capital and companies". 

For these reasons, one of the most remarkable projects launched is Startup Town. It involves companies active in different fields (from IT to fashion) and its strategic goal is to foster the creation of new business in order toattract big groups of investors. Stefano Venturi - head of the project - stressed how important is to work harmoniously with several actors public and private to achieve the planned targets in several fields at the same time.

Finally, the common thought is that the multi-tasking and effective logic behind this initiative should have a positive impact on the metropolitan area first and then on the whole national territory.

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