Synergy between companies and university
Collaboration between universities and companies plays a major role in national and international innovation strategies. At the European level, university and tertiary education is a resource for the process of growth and innovation that the European Commission wants to pursue, through support and investment actions.
The focus is on the creation or consolidation of inter-university networks and between the academic world and the business fabric in order to:
- encouraging the transfer and sharing of knowledge;
- create long-term partnerships and opportunities;
- drive innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity.
The establishment of such networks is often favored by the specialized intermediaries of research and technological development, such as the Innovation Poles, which fostering and supporting both the strengthening of the link between the scientific system and the business system, and the collaboration between companies – to order to increase the propensity for innovation of the production system – through animation activities, guarantee optimal results of the different synergies with the system.
The European programming 2014-2020, has developed specific lines of funding for companies and also aims to encourage their active participation in research and cooperation projects, supported by training institutions.
The national (PON) and regional (POR) operational programs, also based on European funds, also represent an opportunity for growth in all industrial sectors, including the construction sector.
In fact, in the construction sector, the objective of the European Commission is to stimulate competitiveness, efficiency and sustainability so as to create new jobs, drive economic growth and provide solutions for social, climatic and energy challenges.
European Union website concerning the University Business Cooperation:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/higher-education/university-business-cooperation_en
European Union website concerning the growth objectives in the construction sector:
http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/construction_it
The Ac.Ca Building project was born from the synergy between the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Calabria with the companies Metal Carpenteria, Metaline and Irenova, this path was favored by the NET Consortium, Managing Body of the Regional Innovation Hub, which has had the role of stimulating innovative activity and encouraging intensive interaction, as envisaged by European strategies.
The companies involved in the project are strongly linked to technological innovation and green building and, precisely for this reason, they can capitalize at best the relationship between training and research centres.
In the realization of the project, the collaboration between University and Companies will be very important:
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for the University as it creates opportunities to acquire specific skills, oriented to the labour market and is useful for seizing opportunities for exchanges with the business world to increase their skills;
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for companies that can profitably exploit all the stimuli, studies and scientific-technological researches to implement new innovative and sustainable methodologies and/or products.