Partners
National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology
The National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM) is Italy’s largest consortium in the field of advanced materials research, bringing together 53 universities and thousands of researchers working on cutting-edge science and technology. Through voluntary participation, professors, researchers, and PhD students collaborate by submitting and developing joint research projects under the consortium’s framework.
INSTM plays a key role in strengthening Italy’s research competitiveness by pooling expertise, resources, and funding support across institutions. This coordinated approach creates a strong “critical mass” of scientific talent, enabling more successful participation in national and international research projects. Beyond academia, INSTM also fosters collaboration with industry and public research organizations, supporting technology transfer and innovation that benefit both scientific progress and industrial development.
The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore) is one of the oldest academic institutions in Italy, with origins dating back to 1175. Over time, it has evolved into a large, multidisciplinary and dynamic university, with around 30,000 students and more than 1,400 academic and technical staff. It operates across a network of campuses in Modena, Reggio Emilia, and other affiliated sites, structured into multiple departments, schools, and interdepartmental research centres that support education, scientific research, and technology transfer activities.
Unimore positions itself as a modern research university committed to innovation, sustainability, and societal impact. Its vision combines high-quality teaching with advanced research and strong connections to industry, public institutions, and international networks. The university focuses on key strategic areas such as health, sustainability, mobility, energy, and social inclusion, aiming to train skilled graduates while contributing to scientific progress and regional and European development.
Future Needs is an interdisciplinary socio-technical research and technology development SME. The staff of Future Needs has a long record of successful project management and coordination as well as design and development of digital services, policy evaluation, business development and science communication. Future Needs specialises in shaping the development of technology to best suit the needs of practitioners/end-users. As a team, we bring the latest technology trends and aspects of creativity, (youth) entrepreneurship and start-up mentality to projects we are involved in. We help our clients elicit user requirements for the development of new products and services, we develop R&D roadmaps aiming at product and service commercialisation, and we ensure security standards compliance for services and products we work on before they hit the market. We help our clients from the public and not-for-profit sectors to carry out Impact Assessments and policy evaluation studies, while ensuring secure, ethical and privacy-considerate processes and following the “better regulation guidelines” of the European Commission. Finally, we leverage our relationship with a variety of stakeholders ranging from technical specialists and key industry players to policy-makers and citizen groups when offering dissemination and community-building services. Information technology & telecommunications, education, migration, healthcare, transport, regional development, culture and finance.