Provincia Autonoma di Trento - Innovazione

1 Development of a strategic vision (p. 6)

[...] the Province of Trento has in recent years operated through actions aimed at supporting innovation by funding public research and higher education, providing enterprises with the instruments to support industrial research and to encourage the development of new business ventures, investing in the digitalisation of the territory (infrastructure, services and data).

 

3.2 Cross-cutting elements of the Smart Specialisation Strategy (p. 31)

Digital growth and ICT (p. 34)

(p. 35) From a public administration perspective, the digital growth of the PAT also requires the public body to play a new role within local innovation processes, allowing to combine its institutional mission of providing public services with the possibility to become an "open and transparent" proactive partner for businesses, citizens and local communities, fostering open government tools.

Given these general preconditions, the instruments allowing to aim at a digital growth of the territory starting from its high-specialisation areas are to be found in the development and spread of ICT and digitalisation in Trentino, meant as a cross-cutting element underlying the provincial planning to reinforce the horizontal coordination of different thematic goals. These range from the introduction and development of digital skills - aimed at promoting social inclusion, implementing the actions of the public administration and improving the quality of the services offered by enterprises - to the development of integrated initiatives within smart communities, recognised as a strategic driver to stimulate the birth of new industries.

The provincial approach to the matter, with particular regard to smart growth and balanced development of all the different components, will therefore focus on the key issues described below, also identified at the basis of the digital check-up path undertaken in this area, aligned to the Italian and European Digital Agenda and to the direction indicated by the national cohesion policy in terms of expected results and actions aimed at:

• [...]
• fostering open data, open services and the development of applications and services by companies, individuals and civil society, through actions aimed at opening up relevant quality data coming from the vast information asset of the public administrations and at the efficient re-use of such data;
• fully developing a culture of data, i.e. of their value for collective re-use meant to ensure a cross-cutting impact on all sectorial policies. In knowledge economy, data represent the raw material for the development of goods and services meeting the demand for social innovation. In these areas, Trentino has developed a series of actions thanks to which, over the past two years, the whole territory has been in the higher positions in regional rankings for quantity and variety of open public data. An example is to be found in the project at the basis of the portal www.dati.trentino.it, which, from its beginning, involves different levels of government - the Province, the Municipalities and the Communità di Valle - with particular attention to the participation of local companies in the development of new business models related to these markets;

 

3.4 Quality of life (p. 41)

Objectives (p. 43)

[...]

(p. 44) A further strategic goal to be covered will be the promotion of viable business actions with high added value and success prospects being coherent with the general vision.
With regards to the role of the public administration, a crucial element is the willingness of the Public body to promote activities fostering Open Government, which is often connected to two other ideas, i.e. the issues of the management of Big Data and Open Data. These instruments can not only have a strong positive impact on the everyday life of citizens, but also a huge economic value and potential in terms of innovative growth. Opening up public data means to create new opportunities for the territory, starting from their creative re-use, by conceiving and indicating new solutions to common issues, which the public administration struggles to deal with.

 

4 Policy Mix in Research and Innovation and Action Plan (p. 54)

In order to implement a successful smart specialisation strategy by attending to the strategic vision and the principle of concentration of the investments around which the whole work revolves, the Province of Trento has identified the following specific goals as the guiding principles that best respond to the challenge of economic and social development of the territory:

[...]

(p. 55) The second set of identified actions directly addresses the enterprises, the research and innovation system and the local public administration, in order to support and stimulate a shift towards the creation of a social innovation system:

• [...]
• Actions aimed at promoting the digital growth of the territory, the use of ICT by businesses, citizens and the public administration also in terms of red tape reduction and cost containment. There will then be investment in the areas of smart specialisation, in order to support the offer of services and the spread of ICT, encouraging - for example, a greater openness of public sector data (open data), stimulating the use of tools allowing the online participation of citizens (e-democracy and e-participation) and a sensitive reduction of the digital divide.
• Interventions in support of social innovation to be fully put into practice within the Trentino reality, understood as a Smart Community in the broadest sense, with effects not only in terms of technological innovation, but also of product, service, process and organisational innovation. The actions to be undertaken in this area will have to increasingly involve the citizens and those representative groups of the population directly or indirectly affected by the areas of specialisation.

 

ANNEXES

Annex I -- Detailed Areas of Specialisation and technological perspective (p. 88)

I.I Agrifood (p. 88)

Food safety and traceability (p. 91) [...]

Technological trajectories (p. 92)

The technological trajectories identified in this area include:

• [...]
• technologies and tools for the regulation of manufacturing systems safeguarding the traceability of the product (based on open/big data).

Productivity and sustainability of agricultural systems (p. 92) [...]

Technological trajectories (p. 93)

The technological trajectories identified in this area include:

• [...]
• platforms measuring the economic, environmental and social sustainability of the different productive methods (i.e. decision support systems for the food sector integrating the perceptions and preferences of the consumers on production methods; these systems are based on open/big data and geo-crowdsourcing).

 

 

I.II Quality of life (p. 96)

Smart Cities and Communities (p. 97)

By definition, smart cities and communities are realities where the population is actively involved in innovation processes, services and technologies affecting the everyday life of citizens in different areas (e.g. mobility, security, education, health). They are, hence, populated areas (spaces, places, urban and rural systems) expressing a strong willingness to enhance the local resources within a system of connections and networks of open relations interconnected with other external systems, with the active participation of the population in the innovation processes and service delivery supported by the development of platforms and IT services.

The reasons for this choice
As previously remarked, this approach is particularly relevant to such a context as that of Trentino, where social participation and cooperation are characteristic features of the territory. This approach, however, will also be coherent and aligned with the national and European Smart Cities and Communities policies (it is to be remembered that Trentino participated in the National Technological Cluster - Technologies for Smart Communities, along with the role of Trento RISE as the only Italian partner in the Stakeholder Platform of the European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities and the presence, in Trento, of one of the 7 European nodes of the KIC EIT ICT Labs). This will increase social cohesion, civil participation and inclusion, promoting, as well, the simplification and digitalisation of the services. The Trentino area is already very receptive to these issues, also thanks to the presence of important telecommunications and IT infrastructures on the territory (i.e. optic backbone, wireless network, the local website, open data, actions on big data and active inclusion of the citizens), of some research and innovation players with IT, social and management skills and national and international partnerships, as well as of specific innovation and experimentation paths.

[...]

Technological trajectories (p. 98)

The technological trajectories identified in this area include:

• empowering platforms and solutions/services connected to the idea of 'Future Internet' (based, for example, on paradigms such as open data, big data, cloud solutions, PaaS) for the collection, processing and recovery of different types of data (human - i.e. data regarding individuals and businesses - environmental and technological processes) in different application domains, including:

• mobility / Smart Mobility [...]
• education and upbringing / Smart Education [...]
• energy / Smart Energy [...]
• security and monitoring of the territory (i.e. systems for the planning, protection and safety of natural and local resources,...).

 

• techniques and technologies for re-qualification / revitalisation of commercial activities in city centres (i.e. mobile phone applications for the promotion of small commercial and entrepreneurial activities, geolocation of shops and businesses);
• technologies and platforms allowing citizens to participate in public and political life (i.e. Open Government) and to manage the access to institutions;
• tecnologie e piattaforme per consentire la partecipazione dei cittadini alla vita pubblica e politica (i.e. Open Government) e gestire il rapporto con le istituzioni;
• techniques and methodologies for the active involvement of the citizens in support of research and service innovation activities (i.e. planning, testing and assessment of the services in a user-centered view, crowd sourcing).

 

Health, Welfare and Personal Care (p. 102)

Technological trajectories (p. 104)

The technological trajectories identified in this area include:

• [...]
• techniques, tools and platforms based on big data for the collection, processing, management and enhancement of individual and aggregated data of the patient/citizen (i.e. biometric data, clinical and medical processes, need for medication, everyday activities, habits, lifestyles) in terms of electronic health record, for real-time sharing of information between all the players in the health and social care system;

 

I.III Energy and Environment (p. 106) [...]

Security and Environmental Monitoring, GIS and Remote Sensing (p. 108) [...]

Technological trajectories (p. 109)

The technological trajectories identified in this area include:

• remote sensing systems for the acquisition, processing, interpretation and spreading of remote environmental data (i.e. through drones, multi-sensing and multi-purpose technological platforms) for real-time monitoring and control of the environmental resources in order to take care of risk situations for the health and the quality of the environment and of the population;
• [...]
• the development of geographic information systems (GIS) for the graphic management of spatial data and alphanumeric databases, through the use of hardware and software (i.e. FOSS, Free and Open Source Software);
• the creation, through remote sensing and GIS technologies, of local maps of available resources and their degree of usability from an economic as well as logistical, technological and environmental standpoint, in particular with regards to solar energy, biomass, geothermal energy and water resources.