Fiorenza Lipparini, Milano & Partners: “Federated Innovation boosts Milan's competitiveness”

Interview with Fiorenza Lipparini , Director General of Milano & Partners , on Milan’s future as an innovation hub, the key challenges and opportunities ahead, and the strategic role of Federated Innovation in shaping this vision.

Milano stands out in the European and global landscape as a city of innovation. What are the factors that can make it even more competitive?

Throughout its history, Milano has managed to be a city open to flows of ideas and people coming from the rest of the world. As technological innovation becomes the driver for the wealth of cities and nations, our city, which sits at the intersection of trade and transportation corridors from Northern to Southern Europe, and from Eastern to Western Europe, is called to make a quantum leap in R&D in biotech, fintech, cleantech, AI and other emerging sectors, to be able to compete with EU rivals such as Barcelona, Amsterdam or Munich. We think we can make it through a combination of pull and push factors.

The pull factors build on Milano’s traditional attractiveness for business tourism and foreign investment, including urban renewal, leading to the construction of tech districts like MIND. In 2024, Milano’s thriving events industry has been able to attract CPHI, the leading pharma fair in the world, bringing tens of thousands of corporate professionals and scientific researchers to the capital of Lombardy with their projects and expertise, giving a boost to the local ecosystem for pharmaceutical exports and clinical services. The push factors include our eight international universities churning out world-class STEM graduates and the foreign students and expats that choose Milano for their studies and careers. Ultimately, it’s human capital that drives innovation.

Looking to the future, what do you think are the main challenges and opportunities to consolidate Milano's role as a global hub of innovation?

We are in the midst of unprecedented global turbulence and geopolitical tension, and this is a problem for an open city like Milano and an open economy like Italy. Restrictions on trade and labor flows could adversely affect the regional economy. But the City, the Region and all the private and public stakeholder have bet big on building a reputation for Milano not only as the city of fashion and design, but also of research and innovation.

When we talk about innovation, let me say that we need to think multi-dimensional: technological innovation, but also social innovation and cultural change. Another thing we need to understand is that urban planning and technology policy are two sides of the same coin. The city landscape and the intellectual landscape need to co-evolve, something we have shown with Resonate, our dialogues on Milano between urban thinkers and scientific researchers. We are on the cusp of a dual revolution in genomics and artificial intelligence. Milano is well posed to become an international hub for genetic research and advanced medicine, sensor technology and advanced engineering. Like most of Europe, we are trailing behind in the machine learning revolution, although we are climbing positions for our cybersecurity expertise.

In terms of money and investment, much has been done, but international Venture Capital and Private Equity has just started to consider Milano as an alternative to Paris or Cambridge. In comparison to what happens in Boston or North Carolina, the sums involved are still small. We need more finance for biotech. In terms of human capital, we need more STEM graduates, especially young women and international students. This could also be a limiting factor.

What’s the role of Milano & Partners in this transformation?

What makes a city hospitable to talent and investment is the focus of the work of Milano&Partners. Together with municipal policymakers, universities, private stakeholders and institutional accelerators, we have managed to foster an ecosystem of innovation that incubates startups and brings in international researchers to live and work here and Life Sciences companies to set up shop in Milano.

The Federated Innovation network has its epicenter in Milano. What are the points of collaboration and common goals that emerge from this synergy?

Federated Innovation is an original form of collaboration between the enterprises present in the district which creates research projects and orients tech development, according to a coopetition principle between normally competitive companies, which is distinctive of MIND. It includes major companies like AstraZeneca, Bracco, ABB, ELT, Esselunga, Maire Tecnimont, Poste Italiane, TIM, and Synlab. Federated Innovation builds on the philosophy of the public-private partnership that enabled the redevelopment of the former Expo Area.

It manages to bring key universities such as Statale and Politecnico at the same table together with one of the best innovation hub we have in Italy, Cariplo Factory, which was crucial for bringing Berkeley Skydeck, the Silicon Valley accelerator, to Milano. Rooting the ecosystem locally, there are the district’s innovation anchors, i.e. the University of Milano, the Galeazzi Research Hospital and the Human Technopole, who work together with Cariplo Factory in quality of innovation catalyst, and Lendlease and Arexpo, developers of MIND, as well as Fondazione Triulza, a non-profit that looks at the social spillovers of tech innovation. All these actors oversee the strategic expansion of the district and facilitate technology transfer to medium and small enterprises in the surrounding territory of the metro region, making our city even more competitive.