MANAGEMENT & INNOVATION: NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF INNOVATION: ITALY Arnaud COUESNON Richard KILLIAM Martin LUIDJI GM&EB:

CONTEXT IN ITALY

About Italy (1)  Population of 59 Million people  Member of Europe since the beginning – Currency: €  The world’s sixth largest economy

About Italy (2)  Very Catholic country – strange relationship with science  Lack of investment in Education. 5.5% of Italian students graduate with degrees in science or engineering  Italy’s greatest weaknesses in innovation are  government investments in R&D,  education and skill levels,  high technology patents  innovation financing

Italy’s problems Italy’s share in world trade has declined. Still a low productivity growth. Widening gap in GDP per capita with the best OECD performers. Weak investment in R&D may reflect the specialisation of firms in traditional sectors and the prevalence of small family businesses.

Possible solutions Restoring economic dynamism will require addressing various challenges:  _ Improving the environment for innovation is a crucial part of the solution.  _ The key policy challenges for the immediate future concern human capital and innovation by firms.

Approved technological districts  Campania : Polymer and composite materials  Emilia-Romagna : Advanced mechanics  Friuli-Venezia-Giulia : Molecular biomedicine  Lazio : Aerospace  Liguria : Robotics and intelligent systems  Lombardia : Biotechnologies  Piemonte : Wireless technologies  Sicilia : Micro and nano -systems  Veneto : Nanotechnologies

INNOVATION IN ITALY

R&D in Italy  Spending on R&D is below the OECD and EU average  In 2005, R&D intensity (gross domestic expenditure on R&D [GERD] as a percentage of GDP) was 1.1%, compared (2.25% for the OECD area and over 1.7% for the EU).  The private sector financed only 40% of R&D and performed 50% (compared to OECD averages of 63 and 68%, respectively).

National innovative capacity index and subindexes

Indicateurs de l'effort de recherche des principaux pays de l'OCDE

Comparaison internationale de la DIRD en 2005

Taux de croissance de la DIRD dans la zone OCDE, dans la Fédération de Russie et en Chine

THE ITALIAN GOVERNANCE INNOVATION SYSTEM

Staff devoted to S&T  At national level :  Ministry of Economy and finance  MIUR  Ministry of Productive Activities  Ministry of innovation and technology  At Regional Level  Regional R&D and Innovation department  Regional innovation agencies

Share of public financing 2002 GOVERNMENT RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY BUDGET : B€

Main actors of the Research Funding in Million € Source: CNR – CERIS Istituto di Ricerca sull’Impresa e lo Sviluppo – Via dei Taurini, 19 ROMA

Start-ups High Investment Low Investment

Future trajectories 1. Refocusing R&D in order to make it demand-driven and client oriented. 2. A further reform of the existing policy instruments mix in favor of R&D; To render the policy making process more effective towards for real growth of the Italian economic environment 3. A more selective and rewarding model to allow high-quality projects financing 4. Innovation incentive schemes promoted by government media organizations should be advertised more widely (ex : 5. An Innovation coordination entity (MIUR-MAP) should improve its role from direct research funding to facilitator of R&D in a more generic sense 6. Human resource measures should focus more on “capacity-building” rather than “training” in the traditional sense. 7. More balanced and tailor-made policy making process at local level from the Central State to the Regional Policy entities

EXAMPLES OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES IN ITALY

Fiat Group’s Innovation & Technology  R&D’s investment: 1.6 billion euros, or around 3.2% of net revenues of Industrial Activities  Fiat has been « innovative from the beginning »:  FIRE (Fully Integrated Robotized Engine), Common Rail injection diesel powerplants, Multijet, TetraFuel system, and more.  Now, Fiat Group’s Innovation and Technology is:  Centro Ricerche Fiat & Elasis divisions.

Fiat Group – Centro Ricerche Fiat  Group’s « major source of expertise in innovation »  42 new patent applications in 2007  Total patents 2,200, 700 pending.  Activities: Powertrain Research and Development Advanced Technology for Mobility and Safety (GPS-type technologies, inter-vehicle communication) Vehicles & Advanced Manufacturing and Materials (body architecture innovations) Cooperation with regional institutions.

Fiat Powertrain Technologies  Fiat Powertrain Technologies constructs engines for cars and for other uses; gasoline, diesel, and a focus on alternative energies.  « annual output of around 3.1 million engines and 2.5 million gear boxes and axels »  Fiat Powertrain « will invest $32 million to build its first Chinese research and development center » in Shanghai.  Powertrain already has 12 R&D centers throughout the world.  « anti-pollution energies » a priority  Fiat also investing in bigger R&D centres for India

Fiat Group - Elasis  Highly specialized research « in the framework of development programs for Southern Italy »  Pomigliano d’Arco and Lecce (both in Southern Italy), 800 employees  Cooperation with universities, chambers of commerce. See map of technological regions above—Fiat spreads its R&D over the country’s regions rather than concentrating it.

Fiat Group - Elasis  Innovative methodologies: More academic, computer-oriented in nature.  Product modelling, virtual simulation of performance, ergonomics analysis.  Vehicle research: development of new cars.  Electronics systems research/  ‘Fire engines’

Finmeccanica  Finmeccanica S.p.A. is an Italian conglomerate, 30,2% state- financed  Finmeccanica is the second largest industrial group and the largest of the hi-tech industrial groups based in Italy. It works in the fields of defense, aerospace, security, automation, transport and energy.  The company has offices in over 100 countries.

Finmeccanica Innovation (1) Last year:  The Group invested 1.6 billion Euros in R&D, equaling 16% of its revenue.  It boasts 9,100 employees working on design and engineering and 3,100 skilled staff involved in Research and Development. Finmeccanica actively cooperates with 19 Italian research institutes, 29 foreign research institutes and universities, 41 Italian universities as well as national and international institutions.

Finmeccanica Innovation (2) A fundamental element in fostering innovation routes is provided by the project: a process to enhance common technological capital, designed with the aim of connecting people in a knowledge network which multiplies the possibility of generating new ideas, products and talents, and is the engine for a real innovation of value through "technological communities", a transversal organisational model focusing and sharing research on subjects considered to be of top industrial priority. The Group also dedicates considerable energy to intelligence activities which encourage innovation, fuelled by continuous attention to markets, with a view to developing a network that involves clients and partners in order to effectively manage the value chain. The awarding of the Best Innovator 2005 prize by the research company AT Kerney and the importance acquired by Premio Innovazione (Innovation Award), combining ideas from each company of the Group, in its three years since inception, clearly confirm the absolute importance of a cultural element that is inborn in Finmeccanica and in its industrial essence.

Eni history  The history of Eni is a long one and is closely related to the development of Italy.  The board of Eni manages a company operating in around 70 countries, with more than 75,000 employees.  Eni is an integrated energy company, committed to growth through the exploration, production, transport, transformation & marketing of oil ans natural gas.

R&D in Eni (1) Eni operates in competitive sectors and manages businesses based on a range of technological platforms. But generating innovation, also means conducting research, development and demonstration activities in line with the company's corporate strategies and technological plans. With longer-term objectives, the company also carries out research for the development of radical innovation in the field of hydrocarbons, alternative energy and the environment.

R&D in Eni (2)  In this context, Eni's research staff is actively engaged at an international level at leading laboratories and are involved in projects with a high level of innovation and potential applicability.  Intellectual resources, instruments and avant-garde structures generate, and transfer to an industrial scale, the results of innovation for the generation of maximum value.

Main technological areas of Eni's research activities - Upstream Oil & Gas - Midstream Oil & Gas - Downstream Gas - Downstream oil: processes - Downstream oil: products - Power generation and renewables - Environmental sustainability and carbon management

Sources   Ranking National Innovative Capacity: Findings from the National Innovative Capacity Index, MICHAEL E. PORTER, Harvard University, SCOTT STERN, Northwestern University and National Bureau of Economic Research  Economic reform in Italy: how to make it work?, Linda Lanzillotta, Minister for Regional Affairs and Local Communities, Centre for European Reform, London, Tuesday, 13th March 2007  Recherche et développement ] Repères et références statistiques - édition 2008 ]     