The Golinelli Foundation has become a shareholder in Almacube, the innovation hub run by the University of Bologna and Confindustria Emilia Area Centro, bringing with it the expertise and network of G-Factor, its own incubator-accelerator specialising in life sciences and emerging technologies.
With this move, Almacube is expanding its ability to support start-ups and spin-offs throughout their entire entrepreneurial journey: from research and pre-incubation through to business acceleration and market entry. Fondazione Golinelli is marking its entry into Almacube with a total investment of one million euros.
The inclusion of the Golinelli Foundation in Almacube’s structure represents a governance decision that recognises a distinct and complementary role for each of the three institutions. The Alma Mater brings cutting-edge scientific research and the region’s largest pool of researchers and academic spin-offs. Confindustria Emilia Area Centro brings the production system of one of Europe’s most competitive manufacturing regions. Fondazione Golinelli brings its own history and the network built with G-Factor: industrial, institutional and financial partners capable of supporting start-ups through industrial validation and market entry.
Almacube was founded in 2000 on the initiative of the University of Bologna, one of Italy’s leading universities in attracting venture capital investment, and underwent its first major development in 2013 thanks to a partnership with Confindustria Emilia Area Centro, the association representing over 3,400 businesses in the regions of Bologna, Ferrara and Modena. Over 25 years, it has built a recognised model: equity-free deep-tech incubation on the one hand, and open innovation with local businesses on the other. The Golinelli Foundation, established in 1988 from the philanthropic vision of Marino Golinelli, has built over thirty years a cultural, scientific and entrepreneurial hub unique in Italy: the Opificio Golinelli in Bologna, a 14,000-square-metre complex housing educational laboratories, research centres, exhibition spaces and, since 2019, G-Factor, its own incubator-accelerator specialising in life sciences, digital health, agritech and artificial intelligence.
This development is part of a structural trend documented in the Social Innovation Monitor (SIM) 2025 Report: the number of active incubators in Italy has fallen to 203 (-15.1% compared to 239 in 2024). Mergers between organisations, pivots towards new models and the closure of unsustainable operations account for this decline. However, the remaining organisations generate over €600 million in total turnover through more than 5,000 incubated or accelerated start-ups: this contraction is a sign of maturation, not a crisis. It is also indicative of a sector – that of start-ups and the operators that support them – which is evolving and growing at a steady pace, even though Italy, in absolute terms, has not yet caught up with other major economies in this regard.
Only 23% of Italian incubators specialise in a particular sector: the newly established Almacube, with its dual expertise in academic deep tech and industrial life sciences, is among the minority of organisations that the market is rewarding with growth.
Bologna is thus following a path already taken at national level and aims to build, on a more solid institutional foundation, a hub capable of competing within the European landscape of university incubators and attracting international programmes, capital and talent.
Almacube has always operated on two fronts simultaneously. The first is incubation: supporting researchers and students, spin-offs, start-ups and entrepreneurs during the most vulnerable stages of business creation, through equity-free programmes, specialist mentoring and access to a community of over a thousand mentors, managers and consultants. For over two decades, this work has resulted in support for over 320 start-ups, 55 of which are active in the community today, half of them academic spin-offs.
Thanks in part to the influence of Almacube, the University of Bologna is now one of Italy’s leading universities in terms of attracting venture capital investment: according to P101’s ‘State of Italian VC 2024’ report, start-ups founded by alumni of the Alma Mater have raised over €1.1 billion over the last five years.
The second approach is that of open innovation: helping established businesses, from SMEs to large corporations, to innovate through open design challenges, by engaging students, young professionals, researchers and start-ups as agents of change. This model transforms companies’ demand for innovation into tangible growth opportunities for local talent.
In 2025, Almacube closed the financial year with a total turnover of approximately €1.8 million, an increase of around 30% compared with the previous year. The open innovation unit accounts for the lion’s share of this, around 65% of the total, with over 20 established partner companies and more than 50 active projects: a density of projects that indicates structured and ongoing collaborations, rather than one-off initiatives. This is the most concrete proof that the model is sustainable: innovation is funded by innovation.
This initiative helps to strengthen Almacube’s position as a key player in regional deep-tech business development, extending its scope from pre-incubation through to the most advanced stages of growth.
In 2025, the Great-ER programme – funded by the Emilia-Romagna Region and led by Almacube – brought together the region’s four universities to support deep-tech start-ups and spin-offs. The 12 selected projects were offered a structured support programme, with services worth €20,000 each.
It is precisely on this basis that the Golinelli Foundation’s contribution comes into play. Thanks to the acceleration expertise and the model developed by G-Factor, start-ups will now be able to move beyond the initial phase, gaining access to the tools and opportunities they need to navigate the growth stages and enter the market.
In this sense, the initiative helps to build an increasingly integrated ecosystem: start-ups founded in Bologna, Ferrara, Parma, Reggio Emilia or Modena find in Almacube and the Golinelli Foundation a seamless pathway, from the conception of the idea through to industrial development.
The Golinelli Foundation joins Almacube, bringing with it a history that goes far beyond an accelerator programme. Over the past thirty years, it has developed a vision of innovation as a synthesis of science, the arts, technology and entrepreneurship, embodied in the Opificio Golinelli: a leading centre for scientific training and entrepreneurship. This wealth of relational, scientific and cultural capital now becomes part of Almacube’s governance.
In 2021, the Golinelli Foundation, in partnership with CRIF, launched the I-Tech Innovation accelerator programme for young innovative businesses, run by its incubator and accelerator G-Factor, which was established in 2018. The 2025–2026 edition, in collaboration with BI-REX Competence Center, Emil Banca, AgroFood BIC and Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport, with institutional support from the Metropolitan City, the Municipality of Bologna, the Municipality of Imola and ART-ER, selected 11 companies from over 160 applications received across six sectors: EdTech in Life Sciences, AI & Data in Finance & Green Economy, AgriTech & FoodTech, Industry 4.0, Social Impact and TravelTech & Smart Mobility.
The selected companies operate from the physical premises of the partners – Opificio Golinelli, BOOM-CRIF, MUG Emil Banca and BI-REX – and have access to BI-REX’s pilot line for proof-of-concept and industrial validation activities. The programme concludes with an Investor Day in front of venture capital firms, funds and angel investors. It is this acceleration model, where the partner network not only provides funding but also opens up markets, that now converges in the new shared hub.
“With the arrival of the Golinelli Foundation, we are continuing a strategic journey aimed at making Almacube a benchmark for innovation, both in Emilia-Romagna and across the country. We are bringing together high-value expertise and a model capable of supporting innovation at every stage. The governance structure we are building today is designed to grow further: with local universities and research centres, with businesses, and with new players who wish to be part of it,” says Laura Toschi, President of Almacube and Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Bologna, in a statement.
“For the Golinelli Foundation, joining Almacube represents the logical next step in a journey that began almost fifteen years ago, leading us to build an ecosystem in which innovation, training, technology and business interact. It is a decision that brings together history and vision: we had already considered taking this step back in 2012, but the time was not yet right. “Today we believe that impactful innovation can only emerge in mature ecosystems that have reached critical mass and are capable of overcoming fragmentation,” says Andrea Zanotti, president of the Golinelli Foundation
“Through G-Factor, over the past six years, we have evaluated over 1,300 projects, invested in 24 start-ups and supported 60 businesses, collaborating with more than 150 national and international partners. This initiative brings together teams and networks, strengthening – through a public-private partnership – the relationships between universities, investors, businesses, public authorities and innovation centres. “It captures and anticipates the direction of the sector: a mature, integrated ecosystem is emerging, poised to become a key point of reference at national level and beyond,” adds Antonio Danieli, Director General of the Golinelli Foundation and Sole Director of G-Factor.
“In recent years, the University of Bologna has established an increasingly well-structured entrepreneurial ecosystem, in which research, education and technology transfer interact systematically. The Alma Mater offers fertile ground and valuable opportunities to transform study and research into entrepreneurial value: we now have 62 accredited companies, including spin-offs and student start-ups, 35 of which have been accredited in the last five years. Whilst the launch of new initiatives is now an established process, the challenge is increasingly shifting towards growth. “For this reason, the entry of the Golinelli Foundation, through its G-Factor accelerator, into Almacube’s shareholder structure represents a significant new step forward in the vital process of bridging the gap between the academic and business worlds,” said Giovanni Molari, Rector of Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna
“The Golinelli Foundation’s investment in Almacube represents a strategic move of great significance for strengthening our region’s innovation ecosystem. We are bringing together complementary areas of expertise – research, business and scientific culture – to build an even more robust platform to support the creation and growth of high-tech start-ups. “At Confindustria Emilia, we firmly believe in structured collaboration models such as this one, which are capable of generating critical mass, attracting talent and forging tangible links between industry and research. This is how competitiveness is fostered: by transforming innovation into a shared and ongoing process, serving the development of businesses and the local area,” says Tiziana Ferrari, General Manager of Confindustria Emilia Area Centro.
“The Golinelli Foundation’s entry into Almacube is in line with the direction set by this Region: to strengthen our innovation ecosystem by achieving economies of scale, consolidating expertise and making our region increasingly attractive to talent, businesses and investors. The expertise that the Golinelli Foundation brings to the table further enriches the scope of scientific and technological applications, thereby broadening the range of opportunities to support the development of spin-offs and start-ups. “This is, therefore, an outstanding public-private partnership dedicated to innovation and serving as a national model with the strength and structure to forge alliances and compete at European and intercontinental level,” says Vincenzo Colla, Vice-President of the Emilia-Romagna Region and Councillor for Economic Development, the Green Economy, Universities and Research.
Open innovation day
In recent days, Almacube organised Access2Tech, an Open Innovation Day dedicated to Industry 5.0, with the participation of EIT Manufacturing South, the European manufacturing innovation community. The event was attended by more than 15 manufacturing companies and more than 15 tech start-ups from across Europe, with the aim of creating opportunities for discussion and collaboration on some of the most relevant technologies for the factory of the future: human–machine collaboration, robotics, IoT, data analytics, computer vision, AI, additive electronics, digital twins and solutions for sustainable, human-centred production.
“With the Access2Tech Open Innovation Day,” explains Shiva Loccisano, CEO of Almacube, “we are renewing our commitment to promoting a model of innovation across the region and in Bologna that brings together businesses, start-ups and research, with the aim of generating tangible impacts on local manufacturing. Industry 5.0 is not just about technology, but also about how new skills and new forms of collaboration are developed. Almacube’s role, as the region’s Innovation Hub, is precisely this: to facilitate these encounters and connect regional excellence with some of the most advanced solutions at European level.”
“Events such as the Access2Tech Open Innovation Day in Bologna serve to bring manufacturing companies and start-ups together. For us, this means creating the conditions for faster, more practical and market-oriented innovation, with the aim of transforming new technologies into solutions that address the real needs of industry,” comments Silvia Zancarli, managing director of EIT Manufacturing South.
The choice of location also reflects this vision: DAMA Tecnopolo in Bologna represents a strategic infrastructure for industrial research, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and technology transfer, supporting the transformation of regional and European manufacturing. A strategic hub both for the expertise it hosts and for the services it offers to innovation ecosystems. “DAMA is a unique investment by the Region, the country and Europe aimed at achieving technological sovereignty, placing a public infrastructure for supercomputing, big data and artificial intelligence at the service of research, businesses and local areas. “With the European It4lia AI Factory project, of which we are a part,” says Colla, “we are strengthening our Data Valley and the network of technology parks in Emilia-Romagna with a new supercomputer—one of the most powerful in the world—dedicated to AI and the provision of advanced services for start-ups, the research sector, SMEs and public administrations. Hosting the Open Innovation Day means making an unprecedented technological and scientific heritage available to the manufacturing ecosystem, transforming collaboration into a concrete driver of innovation, growth and competitiveness.”
“For technology companies, innovation also means identifying reliable, practical solutions that can be integrated into existing processes,” adds Giovanni Zanei, Vice President of Large Power Conversion at Vertiv. “Events like this allow us to connect with highly skilled organisations and technologies capable of having a direct impact on agility, performance and sustainability. It is a real opportunity to accelerate transformation and strengthen the link between innovation and the local community.”
“We’ve taken image-based artificial intelligence out of the labs and put it directly into the hands of businesses,” says Daniele De Gregorio, CEO and co-founder of EyeCan. “With EyeCan, training a logistics robot or automating quality control has become as intuitive as using a smartphone: no coding, no technical barriers, just tangible business results.”
“For our company, which develops micro-dispensing solutions for electronic prototyping, Access2Tech represents an excellent opportunity to engage directly with manufacturers, universities and local partners; an opportunity that translates not only into commercial potential, but also into the chance to build research and development partnerships and carry out innovative projects alongside key players in the local ecosystem,” emphasises Kaan Yapici of the Turkish start-up Beespenser.
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