Fincantieri together with Genoa University aim for industry innovation

Fincantieri, one of the world's leading shipbuilding groups, together with Genoa University's Polytechnic School, is promoting Innovation Challenge, an invitation to tender aimed at selecting projects in the field of naval technology innovation for subsequent industrialisation.

The initiative, arising from the prestigious and well-established collaboration between the company and Genoa University, will be financed by Fincantieri with a total investment of up to 500,000 euros.

The initiative will seek to capitalise on and develop the best ideas originating from the university in order to translate them into product innovations in areas most critical to competitive advantage, such as product cost and weight reductions, quality perceptions, greater energy efficiency and  payload maximization, in other words all those factors that provide shipping companies with a financial return.

The first phase of the tender involves a "call for ideas" from the 5 departments in Genoa University's Polytechnic School, taking the areas indicated by Fincantieri as the starting point. Six proposals will then be selected to receive funding of 15,000 euros each in order to conduct further research in the following three months. The two projects judged most interesting in terms of innovation will be supported and funded up to 200,000 euros each, allowing them to reach the industrialisation phase.

Fincantieri will have the task of evaluating ideas and plans and of financing the initiative, while Cetena, its naval engineering research subsidiary, will help evaluate proposals as well as be in charge of coordinating and overseeing activities in the industrialisation phase. The evaluation grid will focus on the quality of science and technology (solidity and quality of objectives, effectiveness of the methodology) and on results (impact on Fincantieri's manufacturing model, applicability to the product).

The Genoa University's Polytechnic School will act as the reservoir of ideas and will be involved through its departments in implementing the chosen projects.

Innovation Challenge forms part of a series of initiatives promoted by Fincantieri in the field of Open Innovation, a model of collaboration between companies and research bodies that has emerged in recent years especially in the most innovative industries, such as ICT and Biotech, and in the most technologically advanced countries.

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