FBK ranks 1st in Italy for scientific excellence in three areas

“The outstanding result for Fondazione Bruno Kessler represents a unique case in Italy: it is the entity able to rank at the top both for its very high level scientific production and for the economic and jobs generated by strong investment in innovation and connection to the local area. ”

● FBK-ICT ranks first among the 24 evaluated centers in Engineering and Computer Science with an impressive score of 0.91 ahead of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). Out of the 5 FBK centers evaluated: 1st place also in the historical studies and Political and Social Sciences areas and 3rd place in Physics.

● The Foundation ranks 2nd as well in the overall ranking of the 17 institutions evaluated for the quality of scientific production, with a +52% compared to the average.

● FBK at the top also for the economic and social impact (Third Mission): The Foundation ranks 1st for the employment impact in the number of spin-offs and spin-off acquired by the market, and 2nd for the number of operating spin-off companies and total revenue as well as for the number of patents. Mrs. Baglieri (ANVUR): “Among the research institutions, FBK ranks first in terms of employees, thus creating many spin-offs that hire so much.”

The Center for Information Technology at Fondazione Bruno Kessler (ICT-FBK) ranks 1st in Italy for Engineering and Information Science, with an extraordinary result of 0.91, while FBK as a whole ranks second among the best Italian research organizations for the quality of scientific production.

FBK ranks 1st as well in the historical studies and political and social sciences areas and for employment impact and number of spin-offs acquired from the market (Third mission). This is the figure that emerges from the results of the national exercise on the Evaluation of Research Quality (VQR 2011- 2014) formally released yesterday in Rome in the presence of the Minister of Education, University and Research, Valeria Fedeli.

“This success”, stressed FBK President Francesco Profumo, “confirms the Foundation’s excellence in pursuing its mission, both for the quality of its scientific production, and for the full economic and employment impact generated by our strong investment in innovation and connection to the local area. In this FBK is actually a unique case in Italy. ”

Looking at the details of the evaluation on the scientific production, the excellence in Industrial and Information Engineering stands out: the two centers, ICT (Information Technology) and CMM (Materials and Microsystems) jointly obtained a score of 0.8, with ICT which, thanks to its 0.91 points, ranks first in its field.

FBK also ranks second in the overall ranking of the 17 research institutions (supervised and unsupervised by the Ministry of Education that voluntarily underwent the evaluation) with a +52% compared to the average.

In addition to the results of excellence in Engineering, the Historical Studies, Political Science and Physics emerge as very competitive areas ranking first and 3rd respectively.

FBK also participated in the evaluation exercise of the “third Mission”, which measures the socio-economic impact of research, achieving a result that places it among the top national organizations and reaffirms its role as distinctive and complementary to academic organizations. Daniela Baglieri, President of the ANVUR Committee on the Third Mission, underlines the leading role of the Foundation: “Among research institutions, FBK ranks first in terms of employees, thus creating many spin-offs that hire so much.”

With regard to companies and spin-offs, the Foundation came in 1st for spin-off employment impact and for the number of spin-offs acquired by others and 2nd for economic impact, number of active enterprises and number of patents.

FBK has established 23 spin-offs, of which 20 are still in business: a very positive result since some statistical studies (performed, for instance, by Mind the Bridge) found that in Italy 9 out of 10 start-ups fail. The average turnover of start-ups is around 660,000 Euros, with peaks of up to 3.4 million Euros. The total workforce exceeds 150.

There are 18 companies and institutions already co-located at the FBK offices in Povo and this affects more than 160 people. With 10 of these companies FBK has entered into lease/loan contracts, most of which of unlimited duration. The area dedicated solely to companies is over 3,000 square meters, while the co-working space inaugurated in December 2016 will count on an 80-square-meter shared workstations area, an innovation square dedicated to public meetings and seminars and an additional multifunctional space of 200 square meters.

“FBK stands out for combining scientific excellence and impact: The excellent results of the national assessment are the result of a new open innovation model in Trentino initiated by the Foundation – FBK President Francesco Profumo points out – FBK not only provides businesses and spin offs with space in their buildings in Povo, but creates a co-working environment, where researchers and innovators from the Foundation and from the company share knowledge, experiences and workshops. In short, Trentino and FBK invest in research and obtain big impact results”.

The survey conducted by the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research System (ANVUR) on behalf of the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) has seen the participation of 96 public and non-public legally certified universities, 12 research institutions supervised by the Ministry of Education and 26 research organizations that, like Fondazione Bruno Kessler, join the survey on avoluntary basis.

In particular, FBK participated by submitting for assessment a total of 250 scientific papers published by 108 authors affiliated with its various research discipline areas.