The Competence Centers, conceived as part of the Industry 4.0 Plan launched by Italian Government in 2016, are realities that refer to some Italian universities with the aim of intensifying the relations between research and industry.

Universities and companies are little used to interacting, and the Competence Centers aim at encouraging this type of collaboration: selected on a national level, they involve excellent university centers and large private players, with the contribution of key stakeholders (research centers, startups etc.) and can rely on government funding.

The 8 selected Competence Centers

• have as objectives: training and awareness on Industry 4.0, live demos on new technologies and access to best practices always within the new 4.0 paradigm;
• offer technological advisory for small and medium enterprises on Industry 4.0;
• launch and accelerate innovative and technological development projects;
• support experimentation and production of new technologies;
• collaborate with competence centers at European level.

After more than two years of operation, the Italian Competence Centers are now at the crossroad: between the final balance of the activities carried out so far and the identification of a future positioning in the global market. The objective of the Panel is to present the progress of all Competence Centers and some best practices matured, highlighting the positive effects that the close interaction between the academic world and the industrial world can guarantee both on fundamental and applied scientific research.