KetLab

What is Ketlab?

The KetLab (Key Enabling Technology Laboratories) are interdisciplinary scientific poles with a high rate of scientific innovation. They constitute a network of structures with legal personality, technological capacity and flexibility, able to support the main national players of technology and innovation, with spillover effects in the space and civil sector.

KetLab was born as a project inspired by the model of the Franhofer Gesellschaft, an example of excellence in the field of industrial research. The Fraunhofer, which has been dedicated to applied research and technology transfer since 1949, is one of the locomotives of the German train, with 22,000 employees, 66 institutes and an annual budget of 2 billion euros, for 70-80% of non-state origin. One of its pillars is the ability to patent: about 300 new patents are filed every year, against a portfolio of more than 6,000.

The KetLab project, given the due scale relationships and the different order of economic resources at stake, wants to affirm, also on the national territory, this successful “good practice”.

Objectives di Ketlab

The KetLab project aims to network the technological “facilities” of Research Bodies and Universities present on the national territory, promoting their access to SMEs with an accompanying and tutoring action for their use.

The primary objectives of KetLab are:

KetLab @Art

The Lazio Region is the leader in Italy for innovation and ranks first for employment in the high-tech services sector, for research and development spending of public and university bodies and for the total spending on information technology. The structure of the production system is characterized by about 90% of small businesses, therefore it is evident the need to review, in light of the presence on international markets of new countries whose products are widely competitive with ours, the sectoral specialization of production system and any new outlets. Hence the importance of starting from the “territory” as a possible catalyst, for the development of the business system in technologically advanced and competitive areas in the international context, and the need to make the connection and operation of the Research System efficient and effective in its three components (universities, public research bodies, companies).

In the Frascati territory and in the neighboring one of the Municipality of Rome, in the Tor Vergata area, there is the most important grouping of Research and University Bodies of Italy, and among the most relevant in Europe. In addition to the University of Tor Vergata, they have offices and laboratories in this area:

• the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), with the National Laboratories of Frascati, the Enea Research Center of Frascati, ESA – ESRIN, the European Space Agency, the ASI Italian Space Agency, the INAF National Institute of Astrophysics and the CNR with numerous Institutes.

In this territorial context the first KetLab was born, the KetLab @ ART (Tuscolana Research Area), creating a common space in which Research Bodies, University Departments and Companies work to find common interests and synergies, promoting technological transfer as a concrete method of growth by promoting

The Activities

The KetLab @ ART (Tuscolana Research Area) is the first KetLab to be located within the E. Amaldi Foundation and develops three technological verticals inside:

Il Ketlab di Bologna

The KetLab@Bologna has its seat in Bologna and is the place of connection between Large Business and SMEs, as it provides a common work space and the opportunity for direct comparison between researchers and technicians of companies with those of Universities and Public Research Bodies.