May 28th 2020 – An agreement was signed last April for the creation of the JRC MATT – Metal And Transformation Technologies, a shared research centre between Politecnico di Milano, A. Agrati S.p.A., Growermetal S.r.l., Mario Frigerio S.p.A. e O.R.I. Martin Acciaieria e Ferriera di Brescia S.p.A..
A Joint Research Center is a partnership between companies and universities on issues of common interest in which advanced innovative research is developed, sharing expertise, instrumentation and infrastructures and in which members can actively contribute to the training and growth of their staff, students and professionals of tomorrow.
The JRC MATT is an example of a strategic and cultural approach to innovation that leverages the concept of Open Innovation as a tool to create value and increase the competitive advantage of its participants.
JRC MATT is a physical and virtual place for collaboration, design and shared know-how creation in response to an increasingly complex global marketplace that requires new ways to organize innovative processes, making vertical and horizontal alliances and developing a collaborative approach that involves combining knowledge, technology and other resources across corporate boundaries.
The research will initially focus on new approaches to supply chain quality, innovative materials and big data analysis in technologically mature contexts.
The founding companies, guided by the common interest, have decided to invest in research and development activities with a medium-long term horizon and a stable partnership over time.
This ensures the presence of important assets for complex innovation processes that require technical skills, research laboratories, equipments, highly qualified experts, financing and entrepreneurial vision.
The official headquarters of the research centre will be the former headquarters of Mario Frigerio in Lecco which, following refurbishment, will host research equipments in order to be able to carry out experiments under real operating conditions.
Polytechnic University of Lecco, located a few hundred meters from the JRC MATT headquarter, will ensure a direct connection with the Milan Polytechnic Departments, the skills and know-how developed as well as access to further research facilities.
The objective of JRC MATT and its founders is to develop a research centre that can become a virtuous example of scientific and industrial collaboration, capable of intercepting other stakeholders and increasing the impact and scope of its action.
In fact, it will be possible to open the partnership to subsequent members who are interested in participating, in a gradual way respect to the involvement inside the activities and economic commitment.
Professor Marco Tarabini, the scientific project Director with the merit “to connect companies that have enthusiastically accepted a challenging project, in a context almost unexplored in terms of type of companies and scope of application”, is confident that the project will be a success in terms of innovative impact.