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TOSCANA

GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
Tuscany is located at the center of Italy, it is bordered by the Tirrenian sea at west and south, and the Appenini mountains chain north and east. The region is 22.992 squared kilometers wide, 66,5 % hills, 25,1 % mountains, 8,4 % plains. It has 3.528.225 inhabitants with a 153 in./sqkm. density - lower than the national average. Natality is very low, i.e., demoghraphic growth is –0,3 / 1000.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The provision of railway and road network in Tuscany is equal to the national average. The road network in Tuscany covers a total of 4100 kilometres and connects Tuscany to all parts of the country. The main ports are situated in Livorno, Piombino, Porto Santo Stefano e Portoferraio. The port of Livorno, in addition to representing the third goods loading platform in Italia with the industrial port of Darsena, offers ferry connections with Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Island of Elba and Capraia and is connected to the main Italian and international ports.

The main airports are the Galileo Galilei in Pisa and the Amerigo Vespucci in Florence both of which offer national and international flights. Three smaller airport are situated in Grosseto, Siena and the Island of Elba. In Tuscany there is 1.584 km of railway track and 13 regional lines on which around 17.000 people travel daily. Two main national railway lines also cross Tuscany. Work is currently underway on a high speed network which should be completed by 2007. The transport sector is one of the main cause of pollution in Tuscany, particularly in urban areas. Between 1990 and 2000 the number of motorised vehicles in Tuscany rose by 10% and private vehicles remain the preferred means of transport for both work and study purposes.

The phenomenon and its negative impacts in terms of air and noise pollution and congestion have been recognised and considerable efforts have been made to improve the public transport service and promote sustainable mobility by, for example, offering incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles, funding for cycle path constructions and funding for transport companies for the use of ecological vehicles.
ECONOMY
Tuscany's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 83,285 million euro (2004) corresponds to 6.8% of the Italian total, with a growth rate of 1.1%. Tuscany is among the richest Italian regions, although the GDP per capita in lower than in some other areas of the country. In 2002, Tuscany was ranked 8th, with data pushing it over and above the national average and bringing it close to the strongest regional economies.

Tuscany entertains a high level of international commercial activity. The region's foreign export amounts to about 8.5 % of the national total. 47% is directed of these exports are towards other European countries (Germany, France and Great Britain) and 14% towards north America (the being high above the national rate). Tuscany foreign export mainly deals with the fashion system (leather, textiles, clothes, shoes, etc.) amounting to 40% of the total export.

LABOUR MARKET
The average employment rate in 2004 was 63.2%, corresponding to 1,483,215 employees, at total which is higher the Italian average (57.4%). This above average rate can be observed in all Tuscan provinces with the exception of Massa Carrara. Regarding employment distribution between sectors 64,09% of the workforce are employed in services (commerce, public administration, etc.), 32,23% in industry and 3,68% in agriculture, while in 2002 it stood at 62,1% in services, 34% in industry and 3,9% in agriculture. The figures reveal that Tuscany is one of the most manufacturing-dependent regions in Europe.

The gender divide in employment rates is notably high. In 2004 the employment rate for men stood at 73,6% while for women it reached only 52,9%. The rate of female employment is the lowest among the developed regions which run from 58% in Val d'Aosta to 84% in Emilia. In 2003 unemployment in Tuscany reached decidedly low levels, falling to 4,7%, against an Italian national average of 8,7%. At 15% youth unemployment, between 15 and 24 years old, is much lower than the Italian average of 27,1%.
THE SMEs SYSTEM
35.2 % of Tuscan employees work in firms with less than 10 employees, 39.3% in enterprises with 10 to 50 employees, and only 25.5 % in firms with more than 50 workers. Therefore the phenomenon of SMEs in Tuscany refers to extremely small firms, more so than in similar regional economic systems such as those in the regions of Emilia Romagna and Veneto. The small size of firms is strictly related to prevailing productive sectors, for example around 14% of workers are employed in clothing and footwear (6,5% in Italy), while only 12% in investment goods (23,6 % in Lombardia and 19,1 % in Emilia Romagna).

SMEs in Tuscany do not only cover light and traditional sectors. Small firms are present in every industrial sector, even in most advanced and dynamic ones such as Mechanics and Electronics. However, the most important feature of small sized enterprises in Tuscany is that they tend to form integrated systems. That is to say clusters are created between a high number of firms in local societies forming industrial districts which constitute a concentrated group of productive activities in a specific territorial context.

Due to the small size of firms one finds a limited growth and diffusion of technologies, credit rationing, and limited scale and net economies. In Tuscany, local industrial systems present various levels of diversification. Some are strongly specialised (e.g., textile in Prato, leather in Santa Croce), whereas others show several productive typologies.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
In 2001 € 886,668 was invested in Research and Development, accounting for 1.07% of the regional GDP and placing Tuscany in third place in Italy behind Lazio and Lombardy. More up to date statistics are difficult to come by as the exact amount invested in research and development in the SME is difficult to quantify. However, it can be estimated that in 2003 this percentage had risen slightly to 1.2%. Various different actors are involved in research activities in Tuscany.

The five University campuses (Firenze, Pisa, Siena, Sant'Anna and the Normale) can boast over 100,000 students a year in 37 faculties with over 11,000 professors and staff employed in research. There are 240 public and private research centres, over 90 centres of service and technological transfer in the technological and productive sectors and 5 European centres of excellence (CEO - Centre of Excellence in Optronics, CERM -Magnetic Resonance Centre, LENS - European Laboratory for non-Linear Spectroscopy, Department of Molecular Biology and the Institute of Clinical Physiology).

As far as Tuscany is concerned, the most outstanding feature is the presence of a high rate of public investment - around 70% of the total amount - compared to the low level of private investment - around 30%. The regional government has identified the reasons for this small scale private involvement in the dimensional structures of the industrial system characterised by micro-enterprises and in the communication difficulty them and the high level research centres located in Tuscany.

Therefore, recently the regional government has committed itself to the implementation of a strategy based on technological transfer, on one side towards the creation of innovative networks between companies, public administrations, universities and research centres, and on the other, the development of actions of private equity and innovative finance.
DATA RELATED TO REGIONAL STRUCTURAL FUNDS MECHANISMS
Reference period: 2000-2006
ERDF objective applicable for the Region (1, 2): ob. 2 + phasing out
Total amount of ERDF funding for the current programme period (2000- 2006): 322.491.827 euro
REGIONAL PROGRAMME OF INNOVATIVE ACTIONS (RPIA)
 Tuscany has just begun its second RPIA. The first RPIA was named PRAI-ITT and focused on the first of the three strategic themes: knowledge-based regional economies and technological innovation, and specifically on the sub-theme cluster and business networks. The Programme was composed of 4 actions:
  • Technological transfer and innovation technology diffusion in Western Tuscany;
  • Technological transfer and the innovation technology diffusion in the fashion system;
  • Industrial applications of the optoelectronic technologies;
  • Industrial agro-alimentary applications of the biotechnology.
The programme also included 1 accompanying measure and one on technical assistance. The total budget of the PRAI was 6 M. Euro, 72.5% financed with public funding, the 27.5% co-financed by public and private partners. Almost half of the resources were assigned to SMEs, i.e. 60% of the 200 and more organisations involved in the project implementation.

In spring 2002 the RPIA call for proposals was launched. 36 projects were submitted; more than 300 subjects grouped in networks of firms, research centres, different organisations were involved. From the 36 submitted projects 14 were admitted for funding and successfully completed. The RPIA ITT constituted an initial preparation in identifying policy and operative methodology which, if correctly applied, can form important intervention instrument within the innovation sector and within technological transfer. Already, a short time after the conclusion of the Programme, the logics network is used as a foundation by some of the SDP ob.2 2000/2006 measures, and in particular by the measure 1.7 Technological Transfer. It is likely that the logics network will form the methodological foundation for future interventions regarding innovation and technological transfer.

The RPIA 2002/2003 also contributed to outlining the actions identified in the new Regional Programme for Innovative Actions approved on the 19th of December 2005 with a duration of two years. PRAI V.IN.C.I (Virtual Innovation and Cooperative Integration) aims to promote Virtual Enterprise / Virtual Organisation as an instrument for the creation and management of aggregations which reinforce competitiveness of the main industrial systems in the Tuscan economy.
The VE /VO will be experimented particularly in the field of technological innovation and technological transfer which, in a system of micro-firms such as Tuscany, represents one of the weakest links in the value chain. The Programme works along the following four action lines:
  • Analysis and design of VE / VO models in specific sectors of the regional industry and dissemination of results;
  • Experimentation, through pilot projects, of associated models of an innovative nature which develop forms of virtual cooperation;
  • Modelling, trans-regional comparison, mainstreaming of the results;
  • Animation, monitoring, technical assistance.

PRAI V.IN.C.I has a total budget of € 4.200,00.00 (47.6% financed by the ERDF).