AREA Science Park, the main science and technology park in Italy, has been active since 1982 and is managed by the "Consorzio per l'AREA di ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica di Trieste", a public research institution supervised by MIUR, the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research.
Acting as a bridge between the academic world and the industrial reality, between innovation and the market, AREA Science Park stands out as a structurally interconnected system of enterprises with high knowledge intensity and public and private scientific research centres, supported by high value added services (financial assistance, technology transfer, training, marketing and communication). With approximately 90 national and international companies and research centres and 1,800 employees, AREA is a necessary and effective structure for territorial innovation, oriented to excellence. AREA creates ideal conditions for:

• facilitating cooperation and alliances among companies settled in the Park, by means of sector clusters sharing competences, resources and structures;
• promoting the diffusion of innovation in processes, products and enterprise organization, to exploit research activities from the economic viewpoint and increase competitiveness at a global level of the regional production system;
• favouring the connections between the worlds of research and enterprises and creating and developing new enterprises with high knowledge intensity;
• providing advanced training for enterprise innovation;
• favouring the internationalisation of the regional research and enterprise system.

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AREA Science Park offers a series of services supporting entrepreneurial development, such as the PatLib Centre of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which provides information and documentation on patents, allowing to orientate R&D activities and to monitor competitors. AREA also promotes specific projects, such as Novimpresa, aimed at supporting enterprises intending to be more competitive through product, project and management innovations. The Novimpresa project staff performs various types of interventions: technological audits; assistance in adopting innovation; verification of entrepreneurial ideas; studies in multi-enterprise sectors; information for innovation.

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AREA Science Park operates to build a functional communication channel between the worlds of research and industry. AREA Science Park analyses and identifies specific professional and know-how needs of enterprises and enhances the supply of technologies and competences through adequate tools, among which ARGO, a search engine developed by AREA Science Park in cooperation with Friuli Venezia Giulia universities and research institutions. ARGO is a result of the SISTER project, a permanent system able to effectively transfer knowledge and innovations to the regional SME.

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IRC IRENE (Italian Relay Centre North East) is the reference centre for trans-national technology transfer and innovation diffusion of the Emilia-Romagna, Marches, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions.
IRENE, co-financed by the INNOVATION programme of the European Union, is one of the junctions of the European network comprising 71 innovation centres present in 33 countries.
In the IRENE context, AREA operates in the regional territory:

• giving assistance to industry in defining technological needs;
• promoting innovative ideas at an European level and, through the Innovation Relay Centre network, identifying partners able to acquire new technologies;
• favouring the drawing up of trans-national technology transfer agreements;
• supporting research and technological development projects in the context of the EU Research and Innovation programme.

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IRC Slovenia is a member of the Innovation Relay Centre international network, within which it assists the local industry in identifying technologies eligible for being exported in other regions; it favours the drawing up of technology transfer agreements; it provides assistance with regard to patents in technology transfer; it promotes innovative ideas throughout Europe by identifying partners able to acquire new technologies; it supplies information on national financial projects for innovation; it draws up the Technology Watch Reports, which analyse the status of a specific technology. It is based in Ljubljana, but deals with the whole of Slovenia.

AREA manages the Innovation Network project, which consists in the creation of a network of competence centres in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Each centre offers: technological audits, patent information, assistance in adopting innovation and in developing research projects, verification of entrepreneurial ideas. Each centre is autonomous in the management of its budget, but at the same time it is coordinated with the research structures connected to the Network. The network structure and the strong market orientation of Innovation Network are aimed at favouring a real “technological fertilisation”, by transferring innovations and technologies that are peculiar of a sector to another sector.

The following centres are already operating: Agro-food, Environment, Enterprise Engineering, Timber and Furniture, Yachting.

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The main objective of the Friuli Innovation Consortium is to favour the transfer of technical and scientific knowledge developed within the University of Udine and the related research centres to enterprises, and to inform universities about innovation needs coming from the world of production. The Consortium also performs the task of managing the Scientific and Technological Park of Udine, which will stand as a tool for the enhancement and transfer of research results and as an incubator of research spin-off enterprises.

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APRE, Agency for the Promotion of European Research, in which AREA Science Park takes part, is based in Rome and is a non-profit association, established in 1990 under the patronage of MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research), supplying information, training and assistance services on research and technological development programmes of the European Union. APRE has developed a network of regional Offices. Friuli Venezia Giulia hosts two offices:

• AREA Science Park - Trieste
• “Luigi Danieli” Scientific and Technological Park - Udine

• promote the participation of Italy to EU’s research, development and technological innovation programmes,
• provide information on chances of financing, opportunities of scientific and technological cooperation existing at European level, results of EU research,
• assist enterprises, universities, research centres and other institutions interested to participate in European research programmes,
• supply training services for personnel of enterprises, universities and research centres.

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