The programme promoted in collaboration with the ELIS consortium, will enable the development of 5 projects by 5 start-up companies. The topics, which range from energy-saving applications for Leonardo's supercomputer, to Davinci-1 and gamification, set out to raise employee awareness on sustainability issues.
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The aim of OPEN ITALY – the innovation ecosystem of the ELIS consortium now in its sixth year, in which Leonardo has been actively involved since 2019, is to foster dialogue and collaboration between big enterprises, start-ups, SMEs, research centres, venture capitalists and young talents through the development of highly innovative projects. The open innovation project, which is part of Leonardo's strategy of opening up to collaborations with external realities, confirms the company's desire to strengthen its technological and sustainable leadership by drawing on the best available skills possible.

2021 saw the participation of 374 start-ups, 40 of which were of particular interest to Leonardo. Upstream of the selection, the company identified its business needs, i.e. approximately 50 priority topics, which were the basis for Leonardo’s selection of the start-up candidates and proposed solutions. Dedicated one-to-one meetings and workshops with the participants were held before the official presentation, of the selected co-innovation projects which took place in May.
This collaboration with innovative start-ups to support research and development will continue with OPEN ITALY 2022. With this in mind, Leonardo has already identified approximately 80 business needs, as well as the first three start-ups with which the company will be developing the collaboration projects.

Source: https://www.leonardo.com/en/news-and-stories-detail/-/detail/open-italy-leonardo-startup