On 26 and 27 April it was hosted the visit of delegation coming from the Shandong province.
For the Chinese side, the mission was promoted by the Shandong Association for Science and Technoogy and coordinated by the Ministry of Science and Technology through the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, while for the Italian side it was promoted by the Ministry of Education, University and Research and coordinated by Città della Scienza, in collaboration with the University of Bergamo.
Among the main objectives there are:to understand the Italian S&T Parks’ business model, to promote cooperation between Chinese and Italian S&T parks and to organize one-to-one meetings between Italian and Chinese organizations.
The first stage of the mission was on 26 April in Naples at Città della Scienza and it was introduced by its Vice-President Adriano Giannola.After the institutional addresses, the Regional Councilor for Internationalization, Start-up and Innovation Valeria Fascione warmly welcomed the delegation and she emphasized how it is important that both government have common goals in their strategies and how it is a priority to deepen bilateral cooperation.
Afterwards, Ji Hongbo, DeputyPresident of the Shandong Association for Science and Technology took the floor, introducing the main development objective of the province.
Following Anne-Marie Bruyas, Responsible for International Relations of Città della Scienza presented Città della Scienza’s activities and units. In conclusion, Mariangela Contursi, General Director of Campania New Steel incubator explained in detail the whole incubation program raising a strong interest.
Later, the delegation visited Città della Scienza’s main units, in particulat the incubator with some innovative start-ups, the Internationalization Office (Casa Cina and Casa Iran), the D.RE.A.M. Fablab and the “Corporea” interactive museum.
During the afternoon many one-to-one meetings were held among Italian and Chinese universities, research centers, enterprises, high-technology districts.
The second and last stage was held in Bergamo at the Kilometro Rosso S&T Park. After the introduction delivered by Sergio Cavalieri, Vice-chancellor for Technology Transfer, Innovation and Valorization of Research, University of Bergamo, Ji Hongbo, Head of the Chinese delegation, took the floor.
Successively, it was well introduced the local context thanks to the speeches delivered by Matteo Kalchschmidt, Vice-Chancellor for Internationalization and International Relations of University of Bergamo Roberto Marelli, Sales & Marketing Director, Kilometro Rosso S&T Park, Luca Pandolfi, Internationalization Manager of Confindustria Bergamo, Francesca Fontana, Full Professor of Chemistry in Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences of University of Bergamo and, in conclusion, Caterina Rizzi, Head of Department of Management, Production and Information Engineering, University of Bergamo.
During the afternoon, two parallel activities were held, namely one-to-one meetings among Italian and Chinese organizations and visits to enterprises and labs located in Kilometro Rosso S&T Park, in particular Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, University of Bergamo’s Mechatronics Lab and Italcementi i. lab.