According to Francesco Stellacci, Professor of Materials Engineering at EPFL in Lausanne and co-founder of the start-up company Molecular Stamping, a system of research funding geared towards small and medium-sized enterprises is the key to stimulating innovation in Italy. Stellacci, who after graduating from the Polytechnic University of Milan taught at MIT in Boston before coming to Switzerland in 2010, talked to the Aspen website team about his experience in transferring skills across from the research sphere to industry.
Is it hard in Italy to turn an idea into a business operation?
In 2006, I co-founded a company, Molecular Stamping, which develops and markets genetic analysis products. The method employed is based on efficient and fast production of DNA microarrays – a series of microscopic DNA probes attached to a solid surface – thanks to nanoparticles that can penetrate cell membranes. The company is headquartered in Trento, and launching a start-up in Italy was not easy. Indeed, initiatives of this kind need a complex ecosystem that is often lacking in our country. It would be useful to foster a circle of investors capable of understanding and backing this type of undertaking. However, without a network of large companies ready to seek out and mentor young start-ups, the problem for many venture capitalists remains how to pull out of an investment. So I think that if we want to boost innovation in Italy, we need to change the current approach and develop stronger partnerships between investors and small and medium-sized enterprises.
What needs to improve to support and further the work of scientists?
In my opinion, much can be done in Italy, including in the field of innovation, and I don’t believe there are any ifs or buts. In fact, the country boasts a high standard of human capital, and despite the crisis, Italy is still one of the richest countries in the world. In my view, there are three expedients which would serve as a useful starting point, namely: management of research funds by scientists, in order to ensure a long-term approach to planning; a system of research funding not geared to big companies but to the smaller enterprises that are the backbone of Italian industry; and finally, a public funding system that helps firms develop innovative ideas or products and which finances the early most costly and difficult stages, leaving it to entrepreneurs to source subsequent funding for further development. Then if the outcome is successful, the company could pay back the public funds from its revenues.
Who can we learn from?
A possible role model could be DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), one of the driving forces behind the development of new technologies in the United States. The key factor in any measures aimed at stimulating innovation must at any rate be a focus on quality. Mechanisms need to be put in place that bring out talent, not just among those already in Italy, but also in those who might come to Italy. Importing excellence helps, because only by measuring ourselves up against others can we improve.
You’ve said that the standard of human capital in Italy is high, but how does the level of university education compare with other countries you’ve lived in, such as the United States? And what can be done to improve it?
The standard of professional training in Italy is excellent, but there is a risk that, compared to other countries, Italian students might be losing out on something, especially from a practical point of view. It is difficult to make a comparison with the United States because I was a student in Italy and a post-doctoral scholar in America. But I think that the important thing, even in Italy, is to train graduate students so that they learn to be researchers. At MIT, everything leads up to you doing research: the laboratories, resources, competition, and talent from all over the world to interact with. This helps students excel and be creative, and it’s conducive to the creation of start-ups. All this only exists in part in Italy. The potential would be even greater if what is still an overly inward-looking system was opened up. One way this could be achieved – and why shouldn’t it? – is by having the best foreign universities set up campuses here.
