Italy invites US to benefit from H2020
The Italian Ambassador to America is encouraging US-based professors to form links with his home country to help benefit from the EU’s next research and innovation funding programme.
Visiting Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero held meetings with professors from five of the state’s universities. Attendees included Massimo Ruzzene, professor of aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Stefano Mazzotta, an associate professor of finance at the Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University, also in Georgia.
“We want to be known for our robots as well as Michelangelo, Leonardo and our art heritage,” Bisogniero said in a speech, adding that “Horizon 2020 has money.”
The meeting was organised by Italy’s honorary consul Angela Della Costanza Turner, who said it was important to underline the European country’s strengths in business, science and the arts. Turner also outlined the importance of developing local business networks in the city.
The ambassador also held talks with the Italian business community in the state capital and spoke to officials from the city’s chamber of commerce.
A key aspect of Horizon 2020 is emphasising international co-operation to tackle the challenges facing society, including health, energy and climate change. Under FP7, the EU’s current research framework programme, which is due to end in December 2013, the USA benefited from over €36m of EU funding.
Italy recently launched its own national research and innovation strategy, aligned with Horizon 2020.
