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Open Italy: how to open a country to Innovation?

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Milan, 31st January 2018

Enel Foundation, in collaboration with the Italian Private Equity, Venture Capital and Private Debt Association (AIFI) examined the state of the Italian innovation ecosystem in the Open Italy event hosted at Polytechnic University of Milan

The event, under the patronage of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, gathered key players of the Italian innovation scene. Representatives of some of the largest companies in the country, including EnelFerrovie dello StatoPoste Italiane and Leonardo joined Venture Funds, start-ups and university incubators such as PoliHub

Pier Carlo Padoan, Italian Minister of Economy and Finance, delivered a speech highlighting the role of innovation as a key element of sustainable growth.

In his remarks at the event, Francesco Starace, President of Enel Foundation and CEO of Enel, said “Open Innovation is a vital stimulus for change”, commenting on the importance of sustainability when innovating and explaining the role of Enel Innovation Hubs as windows of opportunity to the world.

Henry Chesbrough, Executive Director of the Center for Open Innovation at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, who coined the term “open innovation”, and also an Enel Foundation Scientific Committee Member, commenting the event said “Open innovation is the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively. The debate Enel Foundation has initiated on this paradigm with the Open Italy initiative will help stimulating the debate nationwide among key stakeholders and trigger action plans for the benefit of the entire Country”.

Carlo Papa, Director of Enel Foundation, commented “we are particularly proud to have started the debate on Open Italy only a few days after Italy rose four slots in the 2018 Bloomberg Innovation Index entering the Global Top 20.” This event demonstrates that “an open innovation mindset can help nations in becoming innovation champions and we can start to be open by converging in addressing common challenges and sharing knowledge and best practices.”