The Competence Centers establishment represents a far-sighted government project to strategically support businesses in facing the challenges which the Fourth Industrial Revolution has put into being.

The 29/01/2018 decree of Ministry of Economic Development, fixing conditions, standards and methods of financing, paved the way for the selection of 8 highly specialized competence centers on Industry 4.0 issues.

The investment in training and skills – in which Italy still faces a gap with other European states – is the basis of this address which wants to be a concrete support in strengthening the competitiveness of the companies concerned and of the country in terms of innovation and research.

The underlying logics of Competence Centers are:

• To counteract the strong fragmentation and dispersion of TT centers (over 300 centers by census between innovation hubs, PSTs, technological districts).
• To follow European examples: Catapult centers, Poles d’innovation, Fraunhofer.
• To valorise existing realities starting from the university of excellence in a brownfield logic and according to clear logics of specialization on the technologies of the National Industry 4.0 Plan.
• To intensify university-businesses relationships through the establishment of equal partnerships according to an orientation to market and a sustainable planning from an economic and financial point of view.
• To give visibility, dimension and breath to initiatives even with an unedited financing form and promote their completed placement within the forming European DIH network.