When energy meets innovation

How can we free the energies of creativity and innovation, which too often are limited by lack of resources, planning or support by larger firms?

This is precisely the mission of Next Energy, the initiative promoted by Terna and the Cariplo Foundation, and implemented by Cariplo Factory in collaboration with the Terna Campus.

The programme has now reached its third edition: created to respond to a concrete need of a strictly social nature (guaranteeing possibilities and resources for young talents) it then evolved to become a fundamental pivot in the growth process of the Terna Group and in its expansion towards innovation.

The programme provides for three distinct ways of selecting talents and ideas, all with a single objective: supporting innovative projects of exceptional interest in the energy sector, through the features of environmental sustainability and the relationship between the electricity grid and the territory.

This is the case with Creon, and its ambitious project of self-sufficient lighting thanks to cells with microbiological fuel that use the bacterial activity of the soil to produce electricity. Or with Preinvel, which is creating a filtering technology to reduce emissions of dusts and pollutants. Or again with Blockit, which wants to transform datacenters into heating sources for town centres.

Many ideas waiting only to explode: “Call for Ideas” is the entrepreneurial empowerment programme that Next Energy proposes to startups like those listed above (but there are many others). Ten innovative projects or startups are selected and have access to a three-month incubation programme, through a platform made up of the most important national bodies (LUISS ENLABS, the Turin Polytechnic Innovative Business Incubator, the Milan Polytechnic Innovation District & Startup Accelerator…).

“Call For Growth” is instead the tender that has a nature more closely connected to Terna’s work: it is dedicated to five startups or innovative business already launched that have access to growITup, a Cariplo Factory platform created in collaboration with Microsoft.

At the end of this process the startups will be able to begin a period of direct collaboration with Terna. This project is perfectly in line to make the need for Open Innovation that currently affects the group’s actions more concrete: the needs for energy transition and testing of new technological solutions required in fact skills which were different from those present in the company before (for example, statistical, mathematical or experts in big data and artificial intelligence). The selection of mature businesses (that is with a high TRL, Technology Readiness Level, that have no need to be incubated) and therefore with products and skills already formed in fact enables Terna to find new important business opportunities.

Not only startups and businesses, but also training of talents. “Call For Talents” is the programme dedicated to them, new graduates ready for a traineeship of six months first at the Terna Campus, and then in one of the teams that work on highly innovative projects in the territory.

All three programmes are distinguished by two characteristics: they respond to the social needs related to the training and empowerment of young people, and at the same time they represent an important vehicle for the circulation of ideas and projects related to Terna’s business.