Report n. 06/2015 – Final Workshop,15th Dicembre 2015

On the 14^th and 15^th December 2015, a final meeting, involving demonstrative activities and a final workshop, was organized by the project leader Partner 1 [ALSIA-Research Centre Metapontum Agrobios (ALSIA-CRMA)], and representatives of the Partners 2 and 3 [Parco Tecnologico Padano (PTP) and Balearic Islands Biotechnological and Biomedical Cluster (BIOIB)] were invited to the ALSIA-CRMA in Metaponto, Italy.

On the second day, the meeting continued by a final workshop at the conference room of ALSIA-CRMA. At first, Domenico Tataranno (Mayor of Bernalda) and Prof. Michele Perniola (Director of the School of Agricultural, Forest, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Basilicata) welcomed the audience, then Dr. Francesco Cellini (Director of ALSIA-CRMA) introduced the project Biogreen and the ALSIA-CRMA.

The first section of the workshop was consisted of the description of Good Practices of the cluster BIOIB (Palma de Mallorca, Spain) by Mariela Adrover (Cluster Manager of BIOIB), who described the management and the structuration of the cluster, and Dr. Hipólito Medrano [Prof. at the University of the Balearic Islands, Institute of Investigations of Ambient and Water Economics (UIB-INAGEA)], who spoke about research activities to decrease irrigation: ‟More production with less water”.

In the second section of the workshop, the Good Practices of the CAT.AL – PTP were presented by Fabrizio Trigila (PTP Business Incubator Project Manager) and Andrea Vallan (Cluster Manager), and then Olivia Postorino (Director of the Organization Unit of Managing Authorities POR FESR 2014-2020) described the ‟Instrument of the collaborative platform of Open Innovation”. Thereafter, some enterprises of the cluster were introduced by Roberto Verga (CEO of BiCT s.r.l.), Alessanrdo Vitale (Business Development Manager of IPADLAB s.r.l.), and Giuliana D’Imporzano (Facility Manager of the RICICLA Group) via video conference.

Afterwards, representatives of the scientific partners of the cluster Biogreen performed some presentations. Prof. Bartolo Dichio introduced several research activities of the University of Basilicata, and then Dr. Domenico Pignone [Director of the National Research Council – Department of Bio-Agrifood Sciences (CNR-DiSPBA)] spoke about this research centre and a project dedicated to plant phenomics in collaboration with the ALSIA-CRMA. Later, Francesco Montemurro gave a brief overview about the activities of the CREA-SCA (Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics) and the importance of organic agriculture. As representative of zoo technology, Dr. Salvatore Claps (Director of the Research Unit for the Extensive Animal Husbandry) described the main research topics of the CREA-ZOE. By the end of the conference, Isabella De Bari spoke about the ENEA’s (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) technologies platform for bio refineries and green chemistry.

In order to construct together public and private entities, technological infrastructures, competence, human capital, and financial resources concentrated in the region Basilicata, representatives of the present research institutes signed the “Protocol Agreement between Research Institutes of the Region Basilicata aimed at creating by the Operational Thematic Group (GTO) of Bioeconomy”.

The following subjects will be involved:

1. Enterprises,operating institutions in the sector
2. Research centres and technology transfer:

• University of Basilicata
• ENEA-Research Centre Trisaia
• CNR-IMAA (Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis)
• CNR-ISM (Institute of Structure of Matter)
• CNR-IBAM (Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage)
• CNR-IBBR (Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources)
• CREA-ZOE (Research Unit for the Extensive Animal Husbandry)
• CREA-SCA (CouncilforAgricultural Researchand Analysisof Agricultural Economics)
• ALSIA-CRMA.

Following the meetings held by the Basilicata Region (Focus Group and Thematic Groups) to define the program of PO FESR 2014-2020 at regional level, research institutions, operating in the area, had initiated an advantageous conversation that led to this agreement to facilitate contact with the business sector and the initiation of the GTO of Bioeconomy.

In this document, the trajectories of development and areas of intervention have been defined as project proposals of R&D candidates for regional, national and European funding, and divided as follows:

Trajectory 1. Management of water resources in the agro-industrial sector,

Trajectory 2. Genetic research for a sustainable agriculture,

Trajectory 3. Nutrition and health,

Trajectory 4. Green chemistry,

Trajectory 5. Non-technological innovation.