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EMILIA ROMAGNA
GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
The Emilia-Romagna region is located in the north-east of Italy, in the very centre of the country's most productive area and it is bordered from north west to south west by five other regions (Veneto, Lombardia, Liguria, Toscana and Marche) and to the west by the Adriatic sea.

With a surface of 22,123 squared kilometres (50% of which is flatlands, 25% is hilly and 25% is mountain), Emilia-Romagna accounts for 7% of the geographical territory of Italy, being one of the largest region of the country. In 2003 the population was counting just over 4 million inhabitants representing 7% of the national population.

INFRASTRUCTURE
Emilia-Romagna is well supplied with infrastructures, with 37% more than the national average. Bologna is the most important rail and motorway interchange in the country, carrying the majority of the traffic heading north and south, with key routes towards the North of Europe and other Mediterranean countries. Emilia-Romagna currently has 1,080 industrial areas, 85% of which are no more than a maximum of eight kilometres from the principal road communications hubs and 55% of which are the same average distance from the rail hubs.

The oldest road in the region is the Via Emilia, an ancient Roman consular road, along which seven of the nine provincial capitals are situated. The main artery is the highway “Autostrada del Sole”, alongside which the railway runs, connecting Milan and Rome, and running parallel to the Via Emilia from Piacenza to Bologna. There are four airports in the region: Bologna, Forlì, Parma and Rimini. The main port is Ravenna, the third largest in Italy after Genoa and Venice, with 14 million tons of goods and 12 million unloading operations. Concerning telematic infrastructures, the Regional Government is implementing a telecommunication infrastructure aimed at creating the “digital territory”, with its Regional Telematic Plan (2002).

Emilia-Romagna hosts some of Italy's most important universities, including the University of Bologna, founded in 1089 and being the oldest university in the 'Western world'. The other regional universities are located in Parma, Reggio Emilia and Modena, Ferrara and, together with Bologna university and the six suburban university seats, cover all scientific and arts faculties. The region also hosts two American universities. More than 9% of the national university student population attends Emilia-Romagna universities and the transfer of technology from the academic world to business is registering a positive trend, also thanks to the creation of scientific-technological parks (Parma and Cesena) and to the intense scientific research work applied to industry in the electronic engineering, mechanical and food sectors.

ECONOMY
Emilia-Romagna is considered one of the most advanced regions in Europe. It is one of the regions with the highest per capita income (per capita GDP is 25% above the Italian average and 36,4% above the EU-25 average), low unemployment rate (3.1% compared to 9.1% average for the EU-25), employment growth rate above the EU average (1.5% compared to 0.2%), and a very competitive position thanks to the dynamism of its industry, the high performance of the export sector and high return of R&D activities.

The industry generates around 34% of the regional GDP, the service sectors a further 62%, with the agricultural sector accounting for the remaining 4%. In this respect, Emilia-Romagna has a stronger industrial vocation than the other Italian regions (on average, 29% of the national GDP is generated by the industry).

LABOUR MARKET
The labour market shows similar figures to those relative to the generation of GDP: the regional manufacturing industry absorbs nearly 36% of the labour force (32% is the national average). With over 420,000 enterprises (one every ten inhabitants) the region demonstrates a formidable entrepreneurial attitude.

The regional economy is supported by a large number of manufacturing enterprises (over 66,000) and some 144,000 micro-enterprises (97% of the companies located in the region count less than 20 employees for an average of 5.2 employees per enterprise), very often operating within local productive systems (i.e. industrial districts or clusters).

THE SMEs SYSTEM
The productive system in Emilia-Romagna is strongly based on SMEs many of which are organised in networks and clusters. The strength of the system lies in the deep attitude to learn, change and co-operate. Although the main regional clusters were originally based on traditional sectors, they are now highly specialised and, due the consolidation of the engineering sectors and in technical services, all of them are now technology exporters. The main regional clusters are:mechanical engineering; motor industries (especially sport cars and motorcycles); agro-food and packaging; construction materials and technology (especially ceramics); biomedical and electro medical; textile and footwear.

Nowadays, traditional light industry sectors cover just less than 30% of manufacturing employment, while mechanical engineering and motor industry represent more than 50% of employment and exports. Despite the small average size, the degree of internationalisation of companies is quite high: exports represent more than one third of production and outward investments generate about 100,000 jobs. There is also an increasing interest of foreign companies to invest or to buy shares of regional companies: more than 200 companies belong totally or in part to foreign owners.

Investment in research and innovation is strongly increasing, shown by the annual number of industrial licences which has increased by 60%. The Regional Government aims at reinforcing the innovation performance of the productive system and of SMEs. The efforts are concentrated in: stimulating research activities, innovation and University/industry relationships; favouring the diffusion of ICT technologies among SMEs; supporting SMEs internationalisation; developing critical infrastructure (broadband); supporting local development programs.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Total R&D spending in the region (in % of GDP): 1,4% (year 2000). Total Public Sector (in % of GDP):0,46%. Government (in % of GDP): 0,13% University(in % of GDP): 0,33%. Private Sector ((in % of GDP): 0,49% of GDP.
DATA RELATED TO REGIONAL STRUCTURAL FUNDS MECHANISMS
Reference period: 2000-2006. 245 million of Euro towards sub-regional areas corresponding to the 9,8% of population.
REGIONAL PROGRAMME OF INNOVATIVE ACTIONS (RPIA)
Reference period: 01/2002 - 12/2004
RPIA - Regional Programme of Innovative Actions - Strategic themes:
theme 1 - Regional economies based on knowledge and technological innovation
theme 2 - e-EuropeRegio: the information society at the service of regional development

RPIA KEY OBJECTIVES
The programme aimed at promoting and boosting innovative dynamics in the regional system with particular reference to the Health and Life sciences system. The strategy was aimed at increasing the competitiveness of companies producing goods, services or technologies both for the health-care system, through a more intense collaboration with the Research and Innovation community, and developing innovative tools.

RPIA - Regional Programme of Innovative Actions - total cost
€ 10.007.663,28

THEMATIC STRATEGIES AND NAME OF THE ACTIONS:

  • 1) Regional economies based on knowledge and innovation
    Action 1.1 - Mapping the regional system of health, life sciences and industry
    Action 1.2 - Development of applied research and technology transfer in the health sector
    Action 1.3 - Pilot projects for new forms of innovation promotion at regional level
    Action 1.4 - Start up of a research and technology transfer laboratory in the field of Life Sciences
  • 2) e-Europa Regio: Information society supporting regional development
    Action 2.2 - Information Society and Innovative Services
  • 4) Accompanying measures
    Action 4.1 - Exchange with other regions
  • 5) Technical Assistance
    Action 5.1 - Technical assistance

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH ACTION OF THE PROGRAMME
  • Action 1.1: Realization of a regional map of the health and life science system, which aimed at studying single features and relations between the different actors involved, taking into consideration both consolidated production systems and new innovative technological clusters. Given the great variety of agents involved in the sector of health and life sciences, the analysis have focused on the inter-dependence between the traditional industrial districts, new technological districts, world of research, regional and local governments and other institutions, health-care system and users.

  • Action 1.2: The action was aimed at supporting the collaboration between research and enterprises (including health facilities) as regards projects on applied research and technology transfer. Such initiatives have been promoted by groups of SMEs and have involved research centres or other agencies operating in the field of technology transfer and application of the outcomes of research works.

  • Action 1.3: Realisation of two pilot projects for new forms of innovation promoting integration of scientific research at regional level and experimentation of new methods based on advanced technologies to improve efficiency and equity of health services. In particular the following have been realised: a virtual bio-tech and life sciences technological park on the web, networking the regional research system in this field and providing via web the typical services of a techno-park for enterprises, health organisations, researchers and other relevant actors; an innovative system to improve the quality of life of unhealthy people living at home, also improving the remote control of the status and the prevention of risks, thanks to ICTs, robotic and domotic technologies.

  • Action 1.4: This action aimed at supporting the realization of a laboratory of applied research and technology transfer in the field of life sciences in co-operation with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Bologna University.

  • Action 2.2: The action promoted the use of Information Society for the development of new services, to improve the quality and efficiency of services and health-care facilities and their integration with enterprises and users.
    Pilot projects have been financed, aiming at:
    - E-procurement by health-care structures,
    - Innovative services to users
    - Strengthening of the network connecting health-care facilities

  • Action 4.1: This action aimed at facilitating the networking at both national and European level, in order to put the health and life sciences system in an international perspective and to search for synergies with similar systems for an easier dissemination of knowledge and exchange of good practices.

  • Action 5.1: Technical assistance was directly supplied by the managing body to co-ordinate the implementation and integrated development of the Programme. It included: provision of information on the Programme and its goals to the parties involved and to the whole regional system, co-ordination and integration of the projects and services developed within the framework of common IT and telematic systems, drawing up of reports and implementation of the institutional activities.

RPIA COST PER ACTION

  • Cost of Action 1.1: € 139,443.30
  • Cost of Action 1.2: € 2,779,626.34
  • Cost of Action 1.3: € 747,600.00
  • Cost of Action 1.4: € 68,000.00
  • Cost of Action 2.2: € 5,422,317.01
  • Cost of Action 4.1: € 99,000.00
  • Cost of Action 5.1: € 251,676.63