The ENEA Tech and Biomedical Foundation represents “a bridge that accompanies and does not disperse the efforts of research or businesses and makes them measurable and measured by the market”. This was stated by Maria Cristina Porta, General Director of ENEA Tech and Biomedical, a private foundation supervised by the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy. Porta spoke on the topic during the round table entitled “Financing the internationalization of biotechnology and life sciences companies” at the “Italy – United States of America: international cooperation on emerging biotechnology and life sciences” event in Rome.

ENEA Foundation, history and objectives

The ENEA Tech and Biomedical Foundation was born in November 2020 with a very specific focus on technology transfer dedicated to the green economy, circular economy, information technology and agritech. In 2021, as a result of the pandemic, the original mission is strengthened by adding the biomedical sector, in particular the strengthening of research, development and industrial reconversion in the biomedical sector.

“The Foundation – says Porta – has a very diversified spectrum in its mandate and the most ambitious scope, in my opinion, is that of the possibility of participation in the support and creation of scientific research centers or the strengthening of existing ones. Furthermore, it can generate international corporate partnerships aimed at research and business development. We want to propose ourselves as a catalyst for the different forms of finance present in our country so as to generate a multiplier effect, supporting experimentation, and impacting those areas in which specifically dedicated resources may be lacking”.

The development plan: international collaborations and high innovation hubs

In the three-year development plan, currently being approved by the ministry, two centers of high innovation and specialization in Italy with international collaborations are being studied, two requests for the establishment of international corporations in the country to further develop research, a definition of projects which were proposed by mature Italian companies that carry out research internally and need resources to carry out experimentation and marketing, and with the event dedicated to Digital health and precision medicine they have been collected, and now at screening, 151 proposals from as many companies.