Hacking the city is a hackathon that aims to promote a paradigm shift starting with the concept of Circular Economy.
Organized by Tondo in collaboration with Spoke 2 - Green Technologies and Sustainable Industry of the NODES Ecosystem (PNRR) and with the sponsorship of Fondazione Cariplo, the event calls students, recent graduates and PhD students to create innovative and entrepreneurial activities in different thematic macro-areas through challenges.
The hackathon challenges were defined in April 2023 by industry partners to promote innovation on waste, food, water, consumer goods and the digital world. From May 2 to 31, students, recent graduates and doctoral students can nominate their teams and project ideas to respond to the challenges. Selected projects will be refined and winners announced June 9-10 at a dedicated event, during which sponsoring companies will award prizes to the best proposals.
The hackathon will lead to the emergence of innovative and entrepreneurial businesses capable of implementing the circular economy in management
- Of waste (with A2A)
- Of water resources (with Viacqua)
- Of the food supply chain (with Lavazza)
- Of consumer goods (with Humana)
- and technologies (with NTT Data).
Winners will be rewarded with training and employment opportunities to develop ideas to the point of contaminating change. In fact, the hackathon aims to network young talent, responsible companies and enlightened institutions to make the sustainable future we need concretely possible.
The future is in our hands: participate with your team of students, recent graduates or doctoral students by May 31! Let's make it happen, together.
Spoke 2 - Green Technologies and Sustainable Industry will participate on May 5, 2023 from 09:00 am to 11:00 am in the presentation of cascading calls for businesses in the NODES Ecosystem territory: Piedmont, Aosta Valley, provinces of Como, Pavia, Varese.
The event is part of the larger calendar of events organized by Confindustria Piemonte, Confindustria Lombardia-as Enterprise Europe Network partners-and Confindustria Valle d'Aosta, in collaboration with Ecosystem NODES, which was created to foster collaboration between companies, universities, research centers and finance for the development of innovation projects.
Prof. Cristina Prandi, Vice-Director for Research at UniTO and scientific head of Spoke 2 will present the activities of Spoke 2 - Green technologies and sustainable industry.
Following this, Dr. Edoardo Braccio will explain to potential beneficiaries the new cascade calls financed with funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRP) to support research and development projects (Line A) aimed at boosting collaborations between the business and research worlds, and the acquisition of innovation services (Line B) to foster innovation by SMEs.
All the funding opportunities for area businesses and the research community to support a green future.
On April 13, 2023, the event "TECH FOR GOOD. Innovation in Green Technologies" in which the University of Turin presented the themes and funding opportunities of Spoke 2 - Green Technologies and Sustainable Industry.
Speakers at the meeting were: Cristina Prandi - UniTO Vice-Rector and Spoke 2 Coordinator, Edoardo Braccio - Spoke 2 Project Manager, Micol Crostelli - Unioncamere Piemonte, and Chiara Ferroni - NODES Director General; who provided a detailed overview of the activities of the NODES hub and Spoke 2, the contents of the cascading calls, POCs, training opportunities, as well as how the enrollment platform works.
Following this, Professors Enrico Boccaleri, Mauro Fasano, Debora Fino, and Federico Forneris, moderated by Marco Zanetti, expounded in a panel on the specific issues of each cascading call, leaving room for questions from event participants: companies, faculty, researchers, and students.
NODES and Proof of Concept (PoC) Academics: Funding for innovative green technologies.
The NODES call for proposals intends to fund Proof of Concept (PoC) projects in order to support the development of innovative green technologies to foster their transfer to the business world, in support of sustainable industry. In particular, the Nodes Academic PoC call finances innovative projects developed by university research groups, which focus on solutions and technologies in line with NODES and Spoke 2 themes.
The main objective is to increase the level of maturity of the technologies and knowledge developed in the University as this will reduce the technological and business risk in order to facilitate their subsequent commercial exploitation and generate a positive socio-economic impact on the ecosystem territory. This impact will be assessed in terms of an increase in Technology Readiness Level (TRL), Societal Readiness Level (SRL), the creation of prototypes or demonstrators and the foundation of academic spin-offs that base their activities on the technologies and ideas developed during the PoCs. The call, aimed at university researchers, foresees the Cascade Call opening on the 14th of April with activities starting in the autumn, for 14-month PoC projects.
Sustainability reporting and assessments: trends and data reliability
On Wednesday 19th April, at 5.30 p.m., the Grugliasco Campus of the University of Turin will host a meeting to connect researchers and companies. The appointment is structured around a short 10-minute illustrative video entitled 'Reporting and Sustainability Assessments: Trends and Reliability of Data', given by Professors Laura Corazza from the Department of Management, and Alain Devalle from the Department of Economic-Social Sciences and Mathematical-Statistics.
Non-financial reporting and sustainability data are becoming increasingly important both in terms of corporate communication and financial reporting. Indeed, sustainability reporting is aimed at all stakeholders from suppliers to investors. UK research is active in understanding the importance and potential of this tool, future trends and the importance of data collection in the fight against greenwashing.
The initiative is promoted by the Butterfly Area, a strategic project of the university.
Participation is free of charge subject to confirmation via form by 17th April 2023
Contact: butterflyarea@unito.it
School of Water Re-use
The first international training school on the topic of water reuse, School of Water Re-use, will be established in Turin in 2022. The school intends to train staff of water utilities, companies, young researchers, young professionals, PhD students interested in deepening their knowledge and developing skills on the topic of water reuse.
The aim is to offer participants an insight into new perspectives and solutions for the challenges that will be faced in this field. In particular, multidisciplinary knowledge related to the topic of Water Re-use will be acquired by crossing different fields of application.
Not only training.
On 19th April 2023 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Aula De Filippi in Via Accademia Albertina 13 in Turin, the first meeting of the newly created Working Table on Water Re-use will be held. The Table was created to address with a multidisciplinary approach the issue of water reuse in view of the increasingly pressing water crisis and the entry of the Regulation (EU) 2020/741 on minimum requirements for water reuse.
The aim of the meeting is to gather critical issues, interests, needs and present the expertise present. Finally, the Working Table proposes itself as an interlocutor to initiate collaborations, synergies, projects to face and fight the water crisis.
A privileged tool for scientific collaboration between research and business for innovation and sustainability.
The PNRR is an important funding instrument that aims to support the country's recovery and growth through investments in various sectors, including research and development. In this context, Spoke 2 is a reference point for connecting the worlds of research and business, recognising the importance of funding to support PhD scholarships.
On the 22nd of February 2023, at the Grugliasco Campus (TO), the University of Turin organised the 'Doctorates and Industry' event, aimed at companies interested in collaborating with the university and learning more about the opportunities offered by PhDs at the Piedmontese university. The meeting was attended by the referee professors of the various PhD courses, as well as numerous entrepreneurs. During the event, useful information was provided on the financing of PhD scholarships through PNRR funds, which could be used to co-finance these training and research opportunities. The funding of a PhD scholarship by a company or institution allows the PhD student to work closely with the funding institution or company, having access to laboratories and contacts with researchers at the university. Interested parties can find further information on the dedicated page on the University of Turin's portal.
Spoke2 - Green Technologies and Sustainable Industry involves the Stakeholder Committee to share the action strategy and activate the joint construction work
The first operational meeting of the NODES Ecosystem Spoke2 - GREEN TECHNOLOGIES AND SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRY with the Stakeholder Committee was held on the 22nd of February 2023 at 2.30 p.m. in an online meeting.
Focus: Sharing information and action strategy and activating interaction for joint construction work.
Three crucial topics were discussed during the meeting: the opportunities for companies with cascading calls, the collection of research topics proposed by companies and the collection of topics proposed by researchers.
The objectives of the project are applied research, training, technology transfer and entrepreneurship development.
Indeed, the Stakeholder Committee plays a central role in achieving the objectives of the learning and change process generated by the NODES Ecosystem.
It consists of representatives of local organisations such as accelerators and incubators, research centres, business representative bodies, investors, regional innovation poles and national technology clusters, as well as representatives of central and local public administration.
The members of the Stakeholder Committee are not directly partners in the project, but are important because they bring their knowledge, experience and expertise to the regional and interregional learning process and will be able to support the project's objectives in terms of research and innovation topics.
The Committee will meet at other times during the year and will be involved, in particular, in the SPOKE 2 themes to which it will refer in order to: validate the development themes of the NODES Ecosystem, contribute to the investigation of possible developments, support the dissemination and valorisation of the Ecosystem results and participate in dedicated events and activities, collaborate in the creation of synergies between the Ecosystem, Spoke 2 and local and European public and private initiatives.
