Schemes

The objective of Link Up is to increase the visibility and accessibility of research activities developed within the regional Universities and research centres. This is mainly done through different on-line and off-line services supporting collaboration between the public research sector and private enterprises. The services are designed to aid technological transfer from Universities and public Research Centres towards enterprises, in terms of skills, know-how and technologies. Link Up provides guidance to enterprises on how to use research system skills and promotes access to research facilities by enterprises, by clearly indicating pathways and approaches. The Link Up initiative was founded by ASTER and the Department of Business at the University of Bologna.

 

The on-line services provided are designed to provide enterprises, universities and public Research bodies with a basic information service on research skills and resources available in the Emilia-Romagna region (research centres, laboratories, patents, filed patents, European projects) as well as different forms of collaboration (research activities, training of researchers, researchers working within companies, setting up of new firms). Link up also gives direction on different available funds ("direct” incentives aimed at directly funding the forms of collaboration under question or "indirect” incentives aimed at funding projects as a whole, within which the specific form of collaboration can be funded as a cost item).

 

Link Up also provides an off-line technical assistance service that allows people to obtain detailed information on the locally available research skills found in the Emilia-Romagna Region. The Link Up technical assistance services can support companies in need analysis, identification and matching suitable research measures.

        - Receive support for the identification of the most suitable agreements and successively for the signing of research agreement between enterprises and research facilities

        - Receive support for the identification of public funds to be used within the framework of a collaboration agreement and for the submission of related proposals

 

LINK UP provides a service for the collaboration between research and enterprise. This service is based on the following pre-requisites:

        - Availability of skills and tools within regional research bodies that might be potentially used within the industrial field

        - Enterprises’ needs to hire highly specialized staff and to introduce product, process and service innovation into its structure

        - Availability of a Community, national and regional funding system to stimulate and support collaboration between the research and business sectors

 

The service also envisages the organization of meetings to make researchers aware of the collaboration opportunities with enterprises, in terms of visibility and enhancement of skills and laboratories.

Furthermore, seminars and guided tours to research laboratories are organized to inform enterprises about the skills and equipment available within Universities and Public Research Centres in the Emilia-Romagna Region.

 

The collaboration between businesses and public systems of research is encouraged through the use of different funding disbursement.
The framework of funding in support of different "forms of cooperation" includes national and regional (Emilia-Romagna) source community facilities.
Compared to each form of collaboration are distinguished:

        - "direct" incentives, that are designed to directly finance the form of collaboration

        - "indirect" incentives, for projects in their entirety, in which the form of collaboration can be financed as an item of cost

 

 

LINK UP on-line services:

        - 6,500 monthly contacts

        - 1,500 web pages related to research activities indexed by the Link Up engine

        - 30 detailed cards processed by research groups

        - 250 information cards concerning university departments and research units

        - more than 600 research project cards developed by university departments based in the region and funded by the EU

 

LINK UP off-line services:

        - 26 technical assistance actions

        - 4 Seminars and visits to laboratories, dedicated to enterprises and organized in collaboration with ISOF CNR, ISMN CNR, University of Bologna CIAMICIAN Photochemistry and Supra-molecular chemistry Group and Faculty of Agriculture research Group from the Food Science University Campus

        - 4 Seminars addressed to researchers from IMAMOTER CNR, Ceramic Centre of Bologna, C.A.T.E.V., 3^rd Sigma Aldrich Young Chemists Symposium