Distinctive Features

LOCAL AREA

In terms of local area, industrial culture has always paid close attention to the locations where businesses are based, with an eye on their infrastructure endowment and resources.

When choosing a site for businesses and people, decisions are increasingly driven by the location’s links with global connection hubs, which is why we believe it is important for our projects, in which innovation and education are intertwined, to be based within the Innovation Park. Today, the former industrial site of Officine Reggiane is home to the Technopole, with private and university research centres as well as innovative local enterprises.

We firmly believe that, in the future, the choice of this site as the location for our projects on vocational guidance, education and training, innovation, technology transfer and university-run digital disciplines can promote the sharing of ideas and knowledge development among people, these being among the most critical factors for business success.

INNOVATION

With regard to innovation, in recent years, the global economy and business models have been impacted by dynamics which, driven by new digital technologies, have reshaped and are still reshaping value-generation opportunities in both the manufacturing and the service industry.

This acceleration process makes development possible on a global scale, speeds up the creation of links between companies and markets, enables the management of vast quantities of data and enables an unprecedented degree of interaction between humans and machines.

Reggio Emilia’s industrial base is traditionally an innovation-driven system that combines the innovative capacity of its companies with a high level of competitiveness of its products and services on international markets. This ability and key strength provide solid foundations on which to build a process of systemic innovation, a process that does not necessarily take place automatically. It requires expanding the potential for innovation, while taking on the digital challenge, and helping the entire local economic system to distinguish itself as an innovation hub of regional and national importance.

EDUCATION

A far-reaching transformation is also taking place in education. We are living through a phase of radical transformation in the ways in which labour and technology interact, generating new products and services, adding value and increasing productivity. This transformation means that some methods of knowledge acquisition and skills generation are becoming obsolete more rapidly than in the past.

Reggio Emilia’s economic system is rooted in a solid manufacturing tradition as well as the strong presence of specialised service-oriented businesses. In this kind of system it is crucial to provide vocational guidance and train professional figures in relation to the needs of the manufacturing base and at the same time to train people for “what isn’t there” in terms of skills as well as the jobs of the future.

For all these reasons, Digital District sets out to implement the guidelines on local area, innovation and education through 5 new macro-projects.

Under the coordination of
UNINDUSTRIA REGGIO EMILIA
42121 Reggio Emilia – Via Toschi, 30/a