Fincantieri and ENEA signed a memorandum of understanding in order to identify areas of common interest for the development of a portfolio of research and innovation programs. The main ones include energy efficiency, technologies and systems for generating energy from renewable sources, for the production, transport and distribution of hydrogen, fuel cells, the circular economy, management and control strategies for Smart Ports and Smart Cities, materials technologies and sustainability interventions in the marine and terrestrial environment. To intensify cooperation relations, specific working groups will be activated and the possibility of an exchange of personnel between ENEA researchers in the Fincantieri offices and personnel of the Trieste Group in the Agency's Research Centers is envisaged.
Through the ENEA agreement, the objective is to favor a wider dissemination of culture and scientific research with reference to its own sectors of competence, while Fincantieri intends to preserve, with the acquisition of ever greater knowledge and innovative skills in the industrial fields of its business sectors, the role of a global technology leader.
For Fincantieri, research activities will be coordinated by the Research and Innovation function, which will coordinate with the Business Development function if the innovative solutions identified should create new business opportunities for the Group. For ENEA, the research activities will be carried out and coordinated by the Sustainability Department of Production and Territorial Systems and by the Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Department, which will coordinate with the Innovation and Development Department in the event that the potential to exploit the results for the benefit of the Agency.
"This agreement opens the way for a collaboration between research and business of particular significance, with a leading international group such as Fincantieri, on issues such as sustainability, higher education, research and the transfer of innovation, increasingly strategic for growth and competitiveness " underlined the President of ENEA Gilberto Dialuce. "We are very pleased that ENEA has been chosen as a partner and there are countless lands on which we will be able to make professionalism and qualified infrastructures available, from technologies for hydrogen to renewable sources, from CO2 capture to robotics and big data, from circular bursar to advanced materials but also alternative fuels and interventions for the territory on which the construction sites are located, also in a perspective of mitigation and adaptation to climate change ".
Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri, commented: “In recent years we have allocated an average of 160 million euros to numerous projects related to process and product innovation, with particular attention to the issues of decarbonisation and digitalisation. In fact, 60% of our R&I spending feeds the development of clean technologies that will contribute to creating increasingly eco-sustainable products and services, oriented towards the efficient use of resources and the protection of biodiversity. This agreement is therefore part of a strategy undertaken for some time, which we are sure will allow us not only to consolidate the success achieved to date, but also to support the future competitiveness of the Group, called upon to deal with increasingly complex and demanding global scenarios " .
