On Monday, February 25 the inauguration, in Bologna, of G-Factor – the new incubator-accelerator aimed at up-and-coming businesses – completes the open ecosystem of Fondazione Golinelli, which integrates activities in the fields of education, professional development, research, technology transfer, venture capital in synergy with business incubation and acceleration, and the fostering of the arts and sciences. The new 5,000 sqm will complete the existing structure of the citadel of knowledge, innovation and culture covering an area of 14,000 sqm overall.
Established thirty years ago by the will of entrepreneur and philanthropist Marino Golinelli, the Foundation found its home in 2015 within Opificio Golinelli, designed by diverserighestudio: the industrial space of 9,000 sqm was regenerated thanks to a pioneering urban renewal project. It now houses laboratories, classrooms, offices, exhibition spaces, workshops, and various other activities.Two years later, in 2017, the Centro Arti e Scienze Golinelli was inaugurated, an exhibition venue designed by Mario Cucinella Architects: a space of ”imagination and experimentation” of about 700 sqm.
Today, with the inauguration of G-Factor – also designed by diverserighestudio – Fondazione Golinelli puts into effect, with millimeter-level precision, another future project of _Opus 2065, _a multi-year development program which marks the Foundation’s path and was conceived to support younger generations on their journeys of growth.Since 2015, Fondazione Golinelli has welcomed over 300,000 visitors and has provided over half a million hours of training/provides half a million hours of training each year (divided between different types of users: students, teachers, aspiring entrepreneurs …): a reservoir of knowledge that aims to become one of the most important innovation centres in Europe for the international community.
It is in this fertile context that G-Factor takes shape, with all the relationships, networks, collaborations and virtuous contaminations that will be activated, following the existing model that the Foundation has set forth over all these years with research centres, universities, companies, and financial players.
The completion of this new pavilion is therefore not just an expansion from an architectural point of view, but a true beginning, a turning point for Fondazione Golinelli.
Andrea Zanotti, president of Fondazione Golinelli since 2016, states: «It is the definitive exit for the Foundation from the subsidiary role it has played over the years in supporting public action in the fields of training and research, to directly take responsibility in specifying – both from a local and a national perspective – a path to the future » Also adding: «G-Factor reflects and at the same time summarizes a strong idea, a project that aims to bring together and combine training, higher degree research, and the relationship between art and science to now finally achieve this crossing point where training and research become business».In the new pavilion there are already two fundamental realities set forth by the governance of the Foundation: G-Factor, the incubator-accelerator, and the BI-REX Competence Center of Industry 4.0.
With G-Factor, Fondazione Golinelli aims to have financial returns from investments to support its philanthropic activity and intends to concurrently create an unprecedented combination between profit activity and the pursuit of its statutory purpose, which has always been to help the new generations, by fostering their growth, culture and training, to providing support for their business ideas. In the coming weeks, the space will host the startups selected by a team of scientists and experts in business, innovation, technology transfer and finance among the 124 projects that participated (between junior and senior lines) in the first_ call**, Life Science Innovation 2018_**, held by G-Factor, for innovation projects and new companies in the field of life sciences. G-FACTOR is a concrete response by the Foundation to address the need in Italy to foster more possibilities of integration between research, industry and the marketplace, by putting the focus on youth, their business ideas and scientific research, and their ability to produce innovations and new technologies.
Italy is one of the leading European countries for patents, however, investments in startups have yet to catch up.
With G-Factor, Fondazione Golinelli asserts the proposal of a new model, different from those imported from the Anglo-Saxon world and specifically designed for the Italian and European reality: for this first call, as part of a multi-year program, which received applications from abroad (France, Spain, UK, Denmark, Germany, USA) € 1 million has been allocated.
«These resources are not grants or financial instruments and/or debt instruments – states Antonio Danieli, Director General of Fondazione Golineli and CEO of G-Factor – they are destined to be converted into equity percentages, making G-Factor a minority shareholder of the startups, assisting them in the search for new lenders and in the subsequent development of their business.In addition, the resources made available for each start-up are higher than the average provided by incubators operating in this reference segment, furthermore, the financial resources are also accompanied by the entrepreneurial training of the teams with a nine-month training program, partly customized, called G-Force which is based on the thirty-year experience of the Foundation in the sector. Finally, G-Factor will have the competitive advantage of being part of the integrated ecosystem of Opificio Golinelli, the only one of its kind in Italy”.
The selected startups are:
Biocompatibility Innovation (Independent team, Padova)
BionIT Lab (Independent team, Lecce)
ComplexData (Spin-off, University of Milano)
Diamante s.r.l. (University of Verona)
enGenome (Spin-off, University of Pavia)
Genoa Instruments (Spin-off, Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa)
HIPEatch (University of Pavia)
Holey (Independent team, Rome)
Mag Shell (Polytechnic University of Milan)
Relief (Spin-off, Sant’Anna Secondary School)
Alongside the activities that will be held in this new area of the Opificio the purpose is also to provide a space where the Competence Center BI-REX can operate and carry out its pursuits in big data innovation and research excellence. Established in December 2018, it was the first among eight competence centres selected by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development to follow the framework set by the National Industry 4.0 Plan. The intent is to make these realities interact among themselves, taking advantage of the contiguity offered by the spaces to create and feed that fertile and common ground between training and application where innovation can flourish, giving new impetus to the Italian economic and industrial system.