Launched in 2023 by the five public IRCCS (Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospitalisation and Healthcare) in Lombardy, a private IRCCS, Human Technopole and Arexpo, the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) is now entering a new phase of its activity, extending its services to the entire Italian biomedical research system.
During the last Board of Directors meeting, a significant reorganisation of governance was approved, aimed at ensuring greater operational agility. The five public IRCCS in Lombardy will be able to continue to use the Foundation’s services through specific collaboration agreements, without the constraints associated with their previous status as ordinary members.
This development represents a turning point for FITT, which will now be able to offer business development services to all Italian IRCCS (Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospitalisation and Healthcare) and research centres active in the biomedical field, both public and private, as well as to companies, leveraging the expertise, international network and tools developed during the start-up phase.
The centres will be able to count on the Foundation’s support throughout the entire process of exploiting research results: from internal scouting to the analysis of intellectual property protection opportunities, from patent filing to the definition of development strategies, to the creation and financing of spin-offs or the search for industrial partners for licensing agreements and sponsored research contracts.
The aggregation of business development activities within FITT on behalf of multiple research centres will enable a significant critical mass to be achieved, which is essential for attracting the attention of international operators and investors. The latter have historically shown little interest in the Italian ecosystem, which is often perceived as fragmented and lacking in structured interlocutors capable of offering competitive technology pipelines.
This represents a quantum leap for technology transfer in the biomedical field, in a context – that of Italy – which excels in terms of scientific output but still has considerable room for improvement in terms of patenting, the creation of innovative businesses and collaboration with industry.
“During FITT’s first year of operation, the five ordinary member public IRCCS (Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospitalisation and Healthcare), the Milan and Pavia Polyclinics, the Cancer Institute, the Besta Neurological Institute, and the San Gerardo Hospital in Monza, followed a path aimed at implementing the provisions of the statute and action plan, only to realise that this approach was not fully compatible with their regulations,” explains Marco Baccanti, general manager of FITT (pictured), to Startupbusiness. – We have therefore decided to proceed with a change in governance that allows the initial IRCCS to continue using FITT’s business development services as clients and allows FITT to offer them to others as well. FITT 2.0 is now a business development company specialising in the promotion of biomedical research, operating at a national level. It can support all Italian IRCCS, both public and private, universities, other research centres, as well as pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies, including international ones, in their open innovation operations, public administrations in their innovation, research and economic development policies, and individual inventors and researchers.
In addition to the 53 national IRCCS (Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospitalisation and Healthcare), FITT is now also opening up its services to technology transfer offices at universities active in biomedical research, life science companies, charities, independent research centres and government departments interested in developing new policies, with the aim of strengthening the economic and social impact of scientific research in the life sciences.
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