Telecom Italia and the “Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa” have signed an agreement to develop a new model for education and research to have immediate and positive effects on the industrial sector.
The agreement consists of: seven research grants for PHD students, apprenticeship contracts providing high-quality training opportunities and the development of a University centre to put graduates and last year undergraduates in contact with potential employers. This important collaboration provides new opportunities for relations between Universities and employers on a technological, innovative and educational level. It is achieved by implementing a second level masters course and the participation in national and international grants for projects linked to the development of the territory.
Telecom Italia has decided to heavily invest on university research and on high-quality education by collaborating with one of Italy’s most prestigious universities, namely: “Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna”. The agreements reached relate to several departments and, as an objective, aim to involve students and researchers on ideas capable of adding new value to the development of shared projects.
Research grants for PHD students:
Telecom Italia will provide seven bursaries to research projects linked to three institutes of the “Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna”: the TeCIP institute (Technologies for communication, information and perception) and the institutes for Management and Biorobotics. The research grants are for PHDs in Emerging Digital Technologies, Management and Biorobotics, their innovative aspect is that they encourage the research institutes of the “Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna” to work together, so as to create a stronger and more complete research model.
The agreement includes:
- 3 research grants for the development of the “Ultra-wide band optical access and transport and new business model opportunities”, project distributed as follows:
- 1 research grant for the Management Institute
- 2 research grants for the TeCIP institute in the Emerging Digital Technologies department
- 4 research grants for the development of the “Disruptive innovation in e-Health system”, project, distributed as follows:
- 2 research grants for the Management Institute
- 1 research grant for the TeCIP institute in the Emerging Digital Technologies department
- 1 research grant for the Biorobotics Institute in the biorobotics department
Apprenticeship providing high-quality training for Masters degree in Engineering:
The agreement reached with the TeCip institute (Technologies for communication, information and perception) provides last year undergraduates in Engineering with an opportunity to take part in a selection process for contracts of Apprenticeship with Telecom Italia located in Florence. The contract is for part time positions within the company, working on specific activities related to the planning and management of networks, in connection with the development of new Ultrabroadband technologies (NGN and LTE).
The apprenticeship and the seven research grants are the first real steps towards a collaboration that is studying new partnership initiatives, to consolidate the idea that a stronger relationship between University research and business is needed. With this in mind, Telecom Italia and the “Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna” are among the partners and founders of the “Fondazione R&I” (Research and entrepreneurism), which has the objective of enhancing the connections and collaborations between Universities, industries and finance.
One of the initiatives, currently being looked into, is the development of a second level masters course for university students that will accompany the Masters in Managament, Innovation and Engineering of MAINS services already being offered by the school. Telecom Italia is a partner together with other leading businesses of this second level Masters course that seeks to create leaders in the innovation of services.
The most strategic project that Telecom Italia and the “Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna” are currently working on, however, is the development of a University Centre in Pisa. Fundamental to this project is the aggregation around the same nucleus of innovation, a Joint Opoen Lab, with highly transversal competences, so that it can activate new supply chains or radically change those currently existing. In such a way concepts of Open Innovation in transversal Open Labs are initiated.
The university centre will start by concentrating on processes and management of the health sector and on advanced technologies of distributed sensors. The concept behind the project is a university centre in which researchers from the “Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna” and from Telecom Italia can collaborate in a common laboratory, (following the ideas of Open Innovation), on research and educational projects, with the aim of accelerating innovation processes, actively transferring the results on the territory and preparing future talents.
Pisa, 16th May 2012
