PNRR: great participation for NODES cascade calls
The PNRR NODES - Digital and Sustainable North West ecosystem heats up its engines. The application phase for the funds made available by the Ministry of University and Research under the PNRR for local companies has recently closed, and the response has been excellent: the funding requested amounts to over 46 million Euro, and this is the first PNRR project in Italy to pass the cascade call phase.
The calls were issued by the universities that are part of NODES - Politecnico di Torino, Università di Torino, Università dell'Insubria, Università della Valle d'Aosta, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Università di Pavia and Università di Scienze Gastronomiche - and are aimed at financing industrial research and experimental development projects up to a maximum value of 600,000 Euro and access to innovation services up to 80,000 Euro.
The important phase of evaluating the submitted proposals is now beginning, and these concern innovation and research in the areas of NODES: Industry 4.0, sustainable mobility and aerospace, green technologies and sustainable industry, tourism and culture industry, digital and sustainable mountains, health industry and silver economy, primary agro-industry and secondary agro-industry. In this context, an initial objective can already be declared as achieved: participation was excellent and the first PNRR funds for businesses (more than 16 million Euro) will likely be used as per expectations. As many as 276 applications were received for a total requested contribution value of 46.9 million Euro.
“These numbers confirm that, despite the perplexities and concerns about Italy’s not managing to fully exploit the opportunities provided by the PNRR funds, today the best response is provided by companies that show confidence in the tools made available by the MUR and especially by the NODES Ecosystem to push innovation and research on the territory in a virtuous way”, comments NODES President Guido Saracco, Rector of the Politecnico.
The optimal management of cascading calls is ensured by the institutional collaboration between NODES and Unioncamere Piemonte through the support of a dedicated team and the “webtelemaco.infocamere.it” platform, already in use in the business world.
“The PNRR, to which the cascading NODES calls for proposals refer, represents an extraordinary opportunity for growth for our economic fabric: the response that is arriving from our enterprises, also thanks to a widespread and in-depth information and training system and an important teamwork of institutions, makes us proud and confirms the great ability of the territory to want and to know how to deal with the continuous challenges in environmental innovation and transformation, with a view to sustainability and digital culture applied in several fields,” emphasises Paolo Bertolino, Secretary General of Unioncamere Piemonte.
Now the next deadlines will concern the calls for tenders for businesses in the south of Italy (Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia), which are in full activity and will expire on 4 September. In addition, the second window of calls for tenders for the North West (Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta, provinces of Como, Pavia, Varese) will open starting from 1 September with a deadline of 31 October this year.