Italian chemical industry is concentrated in Northern Italy, close to downstream European markets and local customer companies. Northern Italy accounts for about 74% of chemical employment in Italy and Lombardia represents more than half of it. In particular, Lombardia is the first region in Europe in terms of employees and number of chemical companies, more than 83% of which are involved in Research and Development. In this context, one major objective of industrial activity, pursued by 25% of companies, is the reduction of the environmental impact, to be achieved through green chemistry technologies.
Lombardia is one of the two Italian Regions (with Piemonte) that participates in the European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN), an association of member regions throughout Europe, whose President is Dr. Fabrizio Sala, Assessor of Regione Lombardia. The aims of ECRN are: (i) to set up a joint action plan, including measures to optimize the number and quality of projects among members regions, (ii) to accelerate technology transfer and business cooperation between companies and research institutions of participating regions, and (iii) to elaborate measures to increase the number of contacts to potential partners from outside the EU.
On these bases Regione Lombardia, Fondazione Cariplo and University of Pavia agreed to co-found a one-day workshop with the participation of recent holders of grants from the European Research Council (ERC) for chemistry. Contributors include the 2016 Nobel Laureate Ben Feringa, University of Groningen, who was the recipient of an ERC Grant in 2008.
