European entrepreneurial regions : regional ecosystem mapping : region of Lombardy.
Date: 2020-06-17
Institutions: Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Subjects: EU industrial policy, EU regional policy, European undertaking, Lombardy, branch of activity, designs and models, entrepreneurship, innovation, new technology, productivity, regional development, research and development, school-industry relations, small and medium-sized enterprises, start-up

European Entrepreneurial 
Regions 

Regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Written by Vincent Duchêne, Daniela Kretz, Sophie Nuijten and Andrea Ciffolilli 

May – 2020 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) 

Unit A.1.2 — Competitiveness & Internationalisation 

Contact: Valentino Izzo  

E-mail:  EASME-COSME-EER-2017@ec.europa.eu  
Valentino.IZZO@ec.europa.eu  

European Commission 
B-1049 Brussels 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

European Entrepreneurial 
Regions 

Regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) 

COSME Programme  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Manuscript completed in May 2020 

1st edition 

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2020 

© European Union, 2020 

PDF 

ISBN 978-92-9202-949-4 

          doi: 10.2826/786300 

EA-02-20-347-EN-N 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................1 

1 
2 

3 

4 

INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................7 
THE ACTORS IN THE ECOSYSTEM ............................................................................8 
The role of entrepreneurs...............................................................................8 
2.1 
2.1.1  Overview of the entrepreneurial dynamics ............................... 8 
2.1.2  Horizontal assessment ......................................................... 9 
2.1.3  Assessment for the top 3 thematic synergies priorities .............. 9 
Large companies in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.......................................... 10 
2.2.1  General overview of the established enterprises’ interaction with 

2.2 

the ecosystem .................................................................. 10 
2.2.2  Horizontal assessment ....................................................... 11 
2.2.3  Assesment for the top 2 thematic priorities of the region ......... 12 
2.3  Research System and universities ................................................................. 13 

2.3.1  General overview of the research and higher education system 

in the region .................................................................... 13 
2.3.2  Horizontal assessment ....................................................... 16 
2.3.3  Assessment for the top 2 thematic priorities .......................... 17 
2.4  Market services and ecosystem builders ......................................................... 18 
2.4.1  General overview .............................................................. 18 
2.4.2  Horizontal assessment ....................................................... 23 

FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP ............................................... 25 
3.1  Quick snapshot of the industry and economic performance ............................... 25 
3.2  Human capital ............................................................................................ 25 
Financial capital .......................................................................................... 26 
3.3 
3.3.1  General overview of access to finance in the region ................ 26 
3.3.2  Horizontal assessment ....................................................... 26 
3.4 
Infrastructure for local needs and global access .............................................. 27 
3.5  Culture ...................................................................................................... 27 
POLICY MIX FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP .................................................................... 28 
4.1  National framework for entrepreneurship support............................................ 28 
4.2  Regional development policy ........................................................................ 30 
4.2.1  Regional policy objectives .................................................. 30 
4.2.2  Regional policies supporting entrepreneurs and scale-ups ........ 31 
4.2.3  Regional  entrepreneurship  policy  measures  fostering  cross-

border linkages ................................................................ 32 
4.2.4  Regional governance arrangements ..................................... 33 
4.2.5  Assessment of the regional policies for entrepreneurship ......... 34 

5 

REGIONAL SWOT AND CONLCUSIONS .................................................................... 35 

 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

5.1  Maturity of the regional ecosystem ................................................................ 35 
5.2  Updated regional SWOT as basis for inter-regional collaborations ...................... 36 

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 39 
APPENDIX A : IN-DEPTH MAPPING INTERVIEWS.............................................................. 41 

TABLES 
Table 1: Updated SWOT analysis for the Lombardy entrepreneurial ecosystem .............. 4 

Table 2: List of Lombardy technological clusters – CTL ............................................ 18 

Table 3: List of science and technology parks located in Lombardy ............................ 19 

Table 4: Accelerators/Incubators located in Lombardy ............................................ 20 

Table 5: Entrepreneurship – Direct measures supporting businesses in Lombardy ........ 32 

Table 6: Maturity of the ecosystem ...................................................................... 35 

Table 7 Updated SWOT analysis for the Lombardy entrepreneurial ecosystem ............. 37 

Table 8: List of interviewees North Brabant ........................................................... 41 

FIGURES 
Figure 1: The entrepreneurial eco-system in Lombardy (non-exhaustive) ..................... 3 

Figure 2: The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Lombardy (non-exhaustive) .................... 36 

 
 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Lombardy is the second richest region in  Italy with a GDP per capita about 30% higher 
than the national and the EU average. In 2017, with €380.96billion, it has the fifth highest 
GDP among European regions and represents more than one fifth of the National GDP. In 
2017,  67.3%  of  the  people  were  employed  in  services,  31.5%  in  industrial  sectors  and 
1.2% in agriculture. 

Lombardy  is  a  strong  region  in  the  area  of  entrepreneurship  and  employment.  It  has, 
among the other regions, the largest number of SMEs (just under 37,000) with more than 
1 million employees (26 % of the total employees in Italy). In Lombardy almost 20,000 
knowledge intensive (KI) start-ups were born in the 2009-2017 period. Despite existing 
initiatives to support would-be entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-ups there appears to be 
a lack of active support regarding training, education, business creation and the  overall 
encouragement of the entrepreneurial spirit. 

The  Lombardy  ecosystem  is  primarily  composed  of  SMEs,  however,  a  base  of  large 
companies is included in the ecosystem. Large companies in Lombardy have a key role in 
driving value chains and involving local SMEs in doing so. The number of SMEs in the region 
is  comparatively  high,  where  SMEs  are  particularly  strong  in  working  together  and 
collaborating. There is also evidence that domestic SMEs are not sufficiently embedded in 
-and connected with- global value chains dominated by large industrial companies. It is of 
utmost importance to better understand to what  extent the presence of large industrial 
companies in the region is derived from ‘lock-in effects’ (historical choices) with no longer 
ties to local industry, and to what extent the regional ecosystem remains a vibrant and 
interesting place for global activities.  

The research and innovation system in Lombardy region are quite advanced and complex, 
and is characterised by a wide host of important universities and RTOs. Overall, Lombardy 
has 13 major academic institutions (six public and six private universities, one polytechnic 
university) and a university school for advanced studies (IUSS in Pavia). Among them, the 
largest  organisations  are  the  University  of  Milan  (over  40,000  students),  Bicocca 
University,  Polytechnic  of  Milan,  University  of  Pavia  and  Bocconi  University  (+10,000 
students). At European scale, Lombardy region is able to obtain especially a lot of funding 
in the area of advanced manufacturing technologies, ICT and health technology, according 
to  Horizon  2020  participation,  where  the  participants  themselves  are  also  over  60% 
enterprises. This shows a high engagement and collaboration rate between companies and 
research sector in order to be significantly competitive in capturing EU funding.  

Within the region Lombardy there are several clusters that can be identified as ecosystem 
builders. In addition, so-called Technology Poles are supported by local administrations, 
industry associations, chambers of commerce, etc. The majority of them was created in 
the  ‘80s  as  local  development  initiatives.  In  general,  Technology  Poles  support  the 
participation  of  SMEs  in  regional/national  funding  programmes  and  offer  advanced  and 
technical  services  such  as  quality  certification,  staff  training  and  laboratory  tests. 
Furthermore, five Science and Technology Parks are located in Lombardy. They operate in 
specific  industrial  sectors  and  provide  services  and  facilities  to  support  high-innovative 
start-ups. Among these, eight incubators have obtained a certification of the Ministry of 
Economic  Development  (DL  179/2012):  Comonext,  Digital  Magics  SpA,  Impact  Hub  srl, 
Make a Cube srl, Talent Garden Milano srl, Polihub srl, Supernova srl, and Techinnova srl. 

Lombardy employs a large portion of the labour force in the manufacturing sector, which 
is  evident  in  the  rate  of  tertiary  education.  However,  it  remains  critical  that  the 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

manufacturing sector remains competitive and focuses efforts on the modernisation and 
digitalisation of industry, which can be attained through key strategies and investment. 
Funding is crucial for start- and scale-ups. Start-ups in the Lombardy region primarily use 
seed funding (61%) followed by pre-seed (13.6%) and angel investments (6.8%). 

Overall, the Lombardy regional ecosystem (as depicted in Error! Reference source not 
found.) can be considered as ‘mature’. Lombardy is a large, urban and densely populated 
region with a strong industrial tradition and structure. The urban nuclei in the region have 
contributed to develop the tertiary economy over the past decades, complementing and 
diversifying the regional economy. The region has all major ingredients of a very advanced 
ecosystem:  large  global  companies,  a  strong  research  sector,  highly  developed  and 
internationalised  clusters  and  industry  associations  as  well  as  a  large  community  of 
competitive  SMEs.  But  some  elements  may  require  specific  attention.  First  of  all,  more 
attention should be paid to the detailed understanding of (positioning and composition of) 
value  chains  in  Lombardy,  and  their  interrelationships  with  local  SMEs,  as  well  as  to 
fostering the linkages between large companies and domestic SMEs. Second, the access 
to capital for innovative activities and companies remains under-developed, both at public 
and  private  sides  of  the  equation.  Third,  the  sub-optimal  provision  of  adequate  skills 
remains an issue to allow for an effective transition to modern and digitised industry and 
new business models. Over the past  five years, the region has put in place a large and 
impressive set of new measures to cope with most of these weaknesses, and it has been 
increasingly  involved  in  international  cooperation  networks.  It  is  now  important  to keep 
the momentum and to sustain these efforts, as well as to implement a solid monitoring 
and  impact  assessment  system.  Lombardy  region  is  currently  proceeding  with  the 
designing phase of Smart Specialisation Strategy and aligning all policy areas of the region 
to this overarching strategy. 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Figure 1: The entrepreneurial eco-system in Lombardy (non-exhaustive) 

Source: IDEA Consult 

The following outlines the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats 
that  can  serve  as  a  basis  for  the  horizontal  and  thematic  collaboration  opportunities 
outlined in this project.  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Table 1: Updated SWOT analysis for the Lombardy entrepreneurial ecosystem 

Strength 
- Competitive economic output 

- Networks with several specialists of 
productive chains 

- Lombardy boasts around 20% of all Italian 
innovative start-ups 

- Traditional quality and local supply chains 

- Lighthouse projects 

- Significantly competitive in capturing EU 
funding due to high engagement and 
collaboration rate between companies and 
research sector  

- Multi-localised industry internationalisation 

- High quality of the higher education and 
research system 

- ‘Professor privilege’ 

- Articulated presence of business 
representative and support organisations 

- Vibrant population with relevant presence of 
immigrants 

- Financial capital of Italy with a high density 
of financial intermediaries 

- Extended network of Mutual Guarantee 
Schemes 

- SME collaboration 

- Integration of technologies solutions 

- One third of all Italian early stage 
investments is placed in Lombardy 

- Entrepreneurial propensity 

- Good performance in terms of prompt 
payment by public administration 

Weakness 
- Competitive arena mainly at local/regional 
level 

- Programmes / initiatives to support start-
ups and scale-ups not sufficiently apparent 

- Few meeting points between demand and 
offer of innovation 

- Neglected adult education 

- Limited cross-fertilisation of ideas between 
education and industry 

- Low rate of international 
students/professors 

- Universities hamper IPR (licencing) and 
tech transfer  

- Challenges with medical committee for 
clinical trials 

- Fragmented assistance 

- Brain drain: skilled Italian workers and even 
students leaving 

- Salaries / career perspectives low 

- Low degree of capitalisation of SMEs 

- Persistent loan culture 

- Under-developed and fragmented risk 
capital market 

- SMEs inability to craft and steer own value 
chains 

- Less flexibility in investment choices 

- Absence of investment readiness 
programmes 

- Low scientific knowledge of investors 

- Risk aversity 

- Slow payment of grants and funding 

- Lack of systemic evaluation of programmes 
to support enterprises’ development 

Opportunity 
- Regional diversity and basis for growth 

Threat 
- Sudden acceleration of the technologies 

- Educational programmes targeting industry 
needs  

- Training and education on entrepreneurship 
at higher education institutes 

- Untapped potential of female/young 
entrepreneurship 

- Mobilisation of large companies/players 
(e.g. through AFIL strategic communities) 

- Immigrant entrepreneurship 

- Competitiveness in innovation 

- Costs for renting spaces relatively low 

- Cheap wages in Italy 

- Global competition 

- Political commitment and stability 

- For MedTech companies: New EU 
Regulation in Medical Device Regulation and 
Medical Device Directive 

- Spinoffs/spinouts are not encouraged by 
central administration of CNR 

- Outdated structures and skills in SMEs 

- Lack of succession planning, professional 
education and continuing professional 
development (CPD) in SMEs 

- Funding and investment 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

- Bring stakeholders together to collaborate 
for innovation 

- Difficult balance between efficiency and 
territorial proximity of financial institutions 

- Higher education and research spinouts 

- Culture (risk averse)  

- New and alternative IP collaboration models 
in favour of start-ups 

- Loss of talent 

- Existence of well-established and renowned 
clusters 

- lengthening of the value chains (especially 
for food manufacturing) in the region 

- Targeted support for Gazelles 

- Increased support for start-ups 

- Growing awareness in SMEs of the 
importance to invest in education and 
training 

- DIH to support digitalisation of industries 
and adoption of new technologies 

Source: IDEA Consult 

Suggestions for interregional cooperation: In view of the aim of this project, to map, 
analyse and interlink EER regions, suggestions for  interregional cooperation arising from 
the in-depth mapping are identified. These are a result of the literature review, interviews, 
study  visits  and  validation  carried  out  together  with  the  regions  themselves.  These 
suggestions are highlighted in the following: 

Organising and attracting financing: 

•  Lombardy faces the challenge of acquiring the necessary funding needed to scale 

up. Specific funding for scaling up businesses is to be increased.  Some 
organisations exist, such as Italia start-up, however more funds are appearing. 
The culture in Italy remains risk averse, and the political instability is perceived as 
deterring and risky. A potential opportunity for collaboration would be to identify 
how other regions are dealing with this and how they work with their institutions, 
e.g. by attracting VCs to the region or by drawing upon other funding 
instruments.   

•  As an additional opportunity, it could be interesting to identify and create a 
network of unlocking investment funds (i.e. those funds that were key in 
unlocking further funding or support, such as high-tech Gründerfonds). 

Industry 4.0 / digitalisation:  

•   Thematic interests of those companies involved in the Lombardy Technology Cluster 
Smart Factory “Associazione Fabbrica Intelligente Lombardia” (AFIL cluster) lie in the 
area  of  AI  as  well  as  a  de-  and  remanufacturing.  In  the  area  of  digitalisation,  the 
following subjects are strengths: advanced manufacturing, automation, and especially 
the integration of existing solutions. Collaboration opportunities in these thematic areas 
between companies could be explored together with EER regions. In addition, a specific 
mapping of AI technologies, specifically about their impact on processes of enterprises 
would be perceived as helpful for the companies. 

•   A challenge looking forward remains the aspect of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) and 
how these can ideally provide the necessary support to digitalisation of companies and 
industries. Typically, it is expected that DIH will provide the necessary technological 
orientation  (e.g.  with  information  on  efficiency  and  productivity  gains  of  specific 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

solutions) and support for the digital transition, which is perceived to be much broader 
than industry 4.0 alone. A collaboration opportunity in this regard could include linking 
and exchanging between regions on best practices related to DIH implementation.  

MedTech: 

•  Stakeholders in Lombardy are particularly interested in collaboration opportunities 
related to medical technology at the interface with nano technology. In particular, 
it could be an opportunity to exchange with other regions on specific policy 
measures relating to how to encourage companies to go into this sector. 
Furthermore, exchanging experiences on Intellectual Property (IP) models among 
regions would be an opportunity for collaboration. These could include examples 
of how to lower barriers to start-ups coming from research organisations, 
exclusive licencing of patents, among others.  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

1  INTRODUCTION 

This  report  has  been  prepared  in  the  framework  of  the  project  entitled  ‘Fostering 
collaboration  through  mapping,  analysing  and  interlinking  of  European  Entrepreneurial 
Regions’ launched by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, 
Industry,  Entrepreneurship  and  SMEs  and  the  Executive  Agency  for  Small  and Medium-
sized Enterprises (EASME). This project is funded by the COSME programme1. 

The objective of this project is to strengthen the impact of existing actions aimed at further 
developing  start-up  and  scale-up  support.  It  aims  at  fostering  collaboration  across  the 
European  Entrepreneurial  Regions  (EER)  and  developing  and  implementing  concrete 
collaborative  action  plans  that  will  foster  scale-ups  and  entrepreneurs  along  common 
thematic priorities.  

This project builds on the long-standing experience of the EER initiative of the Committee 
of the Regions. The EER label has been awarded to regions for the commitment and policies 
to make their region one of the most resilient and ambitious places in Europe with forward-
looking  actions.  Strategic  topic  areas  are  identified  based  on  mapping,  analysing  and 
interlinking of EER labelled regions.  

In  this  context,  the  objective  of  this  report  is  to  map  the  regional  entrepreneurial 
ecosystems of the participating EER regions focusing on the analysis of their actors, policies 
and market-enhancing services and also exploring the potential linkages within and across 
the regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. 

The following 10 EER labelled regions participate in this project: 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

Catalonia,  

Central Macedonia,  

Flanders, 

Île-de-France, 

Lombardy, 

Lower Austria, 

Marche, 

North Brabant, 

Northern & Western Region, Ireland 

10.  Western Greece.  

The project is implemented by Technopolis Group, Idea Consult,  Ismeri Europa, Infyde, 
the University of Athens and SPI. 

1 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/cosme_en  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

2  THE ACTORS IN THE ECOSYSTEM 

2.1  The role of entrepreneurs 

2.1.1  Overview of the entrepreneurial dynamics 

Lombardy  is  a  strong  region  in  the  area  of  entrepreneurship  and  employment.  It  has, 
among the other regions, the largest number of SMEs (just under 37,000) with more than 
1 million employees (26 % of the total employees in Italy). In Lombardy almost 20,000 
knowledge  intensive  (KI)  start-ups  were  born  in  the  2009-2017  period.  The  dominant 
sectors of specialisation of KI start-ups in Lombardy are manufacturing (14.7%) and art, 
culture and creative activities (10.5%). After a strong increase between 2014 and 2016, 
the birth rate in Lombardy (ratio between the number of start-ups born and the number 
of inhabitants) in 2017 is equal to 38.6 Lombard KI start-ups for every 100,000 inhabitants 
(Regional public system). 

The Crunchbase2 database includes over 1600 innovative technological companies backed 
by  venture  capital  that  were  active  in  2019  in  Lombardy,  of  which  126  were  start-ups 
(Crunchbase, 2019). 

In Italy as a whole, the perceived opportunities are low compared to the rest of the EU and 
are coupled to a high perceived fear of failure, suggesting that there is a cultural reluctance 
towards  entrepreneurial  spirit  (Muffatto,  et  al.,  2014).  However,  the  development  with 
regard  to  the  intention  to  start  a  company  in  Italy  is  rather  positive,  and  this  figure  is 
almost twice as high as in Germany and the UK. New entrepreneurs primarily start in the 
services  sectors,  where  48.2%  of  the  new  companies  started  in  2014.  Lombardy  is  the 
second-best  region  in  Italy  in  terms  of  new  entrepreneurial  activity.  Of  the  new 
entrepreneurial activities 13.3% were in Lombardy, compared to 14.4% in Sicily.  

Lombard start-ups are struggling to overcome the "start" period and to grow stronger over 
the years. Start-ups originating from the manufacturing sector prove to be the most robust, 
as their risk at the seventh year is under 4% (3.6%), while services are modelled on the 
Lombard average (4.4%) and art, culture and creative activities present an above-average 
risk (5.5%) (Regional public system).  

The entrepreneurial ecosystem of Lombardy is characterised by a mixed group of scale-
ups  of  which  the  largest  (14%)  is  wholesale  &  retail  trade  (except  motor  vehicles  and 
motorcycles).  In  total,  more  than  3170  scale-ups  have  been  recognised.  The  start-up 
ecosystem shows a somewhat different picture with over 20% of the start-ups being active 
in the food and beverage service sector. 

The relevance of KI start-ups in the Lombardy entrepreneurial fabric is therefore not in 
question,  in  fact  in  2017  the  surviving  start-ups  produced  8.4  billion  EUR  in  turnover 
(almost 1/3 of the total in Italy) and employed 119 000 people (1/4 of the total Italy). The 
average turnover per start-up is 508 000 EUR and the average size is 4.9 employees per 
start-up. In terms of productivity, the turnover per employee is 103,000 EUR in Lombardy, 
well above the Italian average (81,000 EUR) (Regional public system). 

2  Crunchbase  is  a  platform  for  finding  business  information  about  private  and  public  companies.  Crunchbase 
information  includes  investments  and  funding  information,  founding  members  and  individuals  in  leadership 
positions, mergers and acquisitions, news, and industry trends. Originally built to track startups, the Crunchbase 
website contains information on public and private companies on a global scale. https://www.crunchbase.com/  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

The  results  of  the  acquisition  rate  are  positive:  the  Lombardy  KI  start-ups  are  very 
attractive  to  investors,  so  as  to  record  the  highest  share  of  start-ups  acquired  (3.1%) 
among the benchmark regions.  

Science-based  industries reached a 5.6% share in Lombardy (start-ups acquired  on the 
total start-ups born between 2009 and 2017) (Regional public system). 

In 2017 as many as 64% of Lombard manufacturing companies made investments (the 
highest share since pre-crisis) and of these, 91.6% were investments in machinery, 62.5% 
in  information  technology,  showing  the  importance  of  the  transition  to  industry  4.0 
(Regional public system). 

Besides  digital  innovation  as  the  main  challenge  that  SMEs  have  to  face,  three  other 
challenges are indicated by the literature (Regional public system). "Openness" becomes 
the key word for these challenges: cultural openness; opening of capital; opening of the 
markets. 

Practically speaking, the actions to be reinforced are: 

−  Human  Capital  Openness  -  extremely  significant  effects  that  an  opening  of  the 
capital  (through  the  acquisition  of  shares  by  private  equity  funds  or  through 
listing) could generate not only in the companies concerned but for the benefit of 
whole territory; 

−  Training  courses  for  companies  and  entrepreneurs  could  play  a  key  role  in 
improving  the  way  of  communication  with  financial  institutions,  from  banks  to 
investment funds, from debt funds to the stock exchange, to encourage a more 
complex  structuring  by  part  of  the  companies  and  better  communication  of 
company  results  and  policies,  thus  facilitating  the  constant  supply  (which  must 
indeed be growing) of traditional and innovative financing channels; 

−  The strengthening of SME Governance is important, promoting, as is the case for 
listed  broadcasters,  the  adoption  on  a  voluntary  basis  of  a  simplified  self-
regulation code that brings SMEs closer to more structured business models; 

2.1.2  Horizontal assessment 

Lombardy region poses an excellent opportunity for would-be entrepreneurs, start-ups and 
scale-ups due to the relative low costs for renting spaces, but also due to the relative low 
costs of wages as compared to other EU regions. The challenge in this area lies in retaining 
the talent, as many skilled workers may seek work in another country or nearby region 
where  wages  are  higher  (e.g.  Switzerland,  Austria,  Germany).  Start-ups  and  scale-ups 
need to find the unique selling point for their company in terms of social and team elements 
and opportunities, or in terms of work-life balance in order to retain staff.  

Despite  existing  initiatives  to  support  would-be  entrepreneurs,  start-ups  and  scale-ups 
there is an apparent lack of active support regarding training, education, business creation 
and the overall encouragement of the entrepreneurial spirit. In addition, collaboration with 
the educational system is needed to foster this (see research and university section below) 
(Muffatto, et al., 2014).  

2.1.3  Assessment for the top 3 thematic synergies priorities 

The region of Lombardy has indicated the following two thematic priorities as priorities for 
the region: industry 4.0 / digitalisation and MedTech.  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

In  the  field  of  digitalisation  and  industry  4.0  the  specific  focus  lies  on  AI  as  well  as 
integration of other existing technologies, which is a particular specialisation of the region.  

In  particular,  the  potential  linked  to  it  is  still  very  wide  to  the  continuation  and  full 
implementation of Industry 4.0, thanks to the flexibility of SMEs, the ability to produce in 
small  series  of  high  quality  and  customised  products  that  can  represent  the  solution 
required by the myriad of new consumers.  

The  network  of  Digital  Innovation  Hubs  (DIH)  can  play  a  decisive  role  in  favouring  the 
technological  development  of  the  companies,  directing  the  search  for  digital  innovation 
necessary to each of them. In doing so, DIH will be supporting companies in their ability 
to produce products with high added value thanks to an optimal use of this innovation.  

In addition, associations such as AFIL would greatly benefit to support companies to be 
more active in the so-called lighthouse projects.  

The area of medical technologies faces the difficulty that the costs are higher than the 
revenues for the region. The technology is being developed, however the culture is lacking 
and thus there is a need to support entrepreneurs to go into this sector. A challenge is to 
increase  production  in  Lombardy,  which  requires  the  stimulation  of  manufacturing 
companies. Furthermore, the challenge is also one of policy making, where there is a need 
to make it more visible and attractive for businesses in these regions to move to this sector.  

Further in the area of MedTech, due to changes in EU regulation (Medical Device Regulation 
and Medical Device Directive) it is expected that fewer companies will certify their products 
and devices in the EU due to this and rather go for FDA approval in the US. This is largely 
due to the removal of the so-called equivalence pathway in the EU regulation, which allows 
products or devices that are similar to a product already on the market to forgo a clinical 
trial. As this is no longer present in the EU regulation, all products must have a clinical trial 
to  be  CE  certified,  where  the  FDA  still  allows  the  equivalence  pathway,  meaning  that  a 
clinical trial is not needed. Given the cost and administrative burden of organising a clinical 
trial, this poses an additional hurdle to start-ups. It is important that start-ups who face 
this issue will be supported by establishes and known firms or other start-ups who have 
good knowledge in this field.  

In addition to the top two priorities, Lombardy region is also interested in the agri-food 
sector,  which  is  very  strong  in  Lombardy.  The  region  is  looking  to  support  technology 
transfer  however  the  challenge  in  Lombardy  is  the  low  interest  of  the  industry  in 
digitalisation  and  modernisation.  The  region  is  particularly  active  in  the  area  of  food 
manufacturing,  where  potential  areas  of  interest  for  collaboration  could  include  food 
safety, traceability, packaging systems, packaging materials, among others. In addition, a 
further objective and challenge ahead is to lengthen the food value chains in Lombardy.  

2.2  Large companies in the entrepreneurial ecosystem 

2.2.1  General overview of the established enterprises’ interaction with the ecosystem 

The  Lombardy  ecosystem  is  primarily  composed  of  SMEs,  however,  a  base  of  large 
companies is included in the ecosystem. Large companies in Lombardy have a key role in 
driving value chains and involving local SMEs in doing so.  

At present the collaboration with SMEs and large companies takes place in a rather ad-hoc 
fashion,  and  there  is  a  need  to  find  ways  to  favour  and  encourage  large  companies  to 
interact with SMEs, involving these in their networks and thus encouraging companies to 
innovate  together  (OECD,  2012).  Challenges  in  this  area  lie  in  the mobilisation  of  large 

10 

 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

companies, to understand large companies’ needs, but also to obtain their engagement in 
improving the regional value chains. In part this is attributed to the fact that the companies 
are  globally  oriented  and  less  focussed  on  Lombardy  as  a  region,  but  also  because  the 
large companies are established in their ways of working.  

One  means  by  which  the  collaboration  between  large  companies  and  SMEs  could  be 
improved  is  through  networks  linking  these  stakeholders,  which  can  lead  to  a  rise  in 
ambition, demonstration possibilities and over all access of SMEs to large companies. AFIL 
– the Lombardy cluster for the manufacturing sector  - recently launched an initiative on 
Strategic  communities3,  where  the  aim  is  to  have  big  enterprises  lead  in  creating  the 
connection  between  SMEs  in  a  technology  driven  fashion.  The  partnerships  must  be 
composed of a minimum of 3  Lombard organisations representing the world  of industry 
and research / universities (with the presence of at least one industrial entity). 

The proposed thematic area should not be excessively wide and should precisely define 
specific innovative application areas in the Lombard advanced manufacturing sector. 

In  addition  to  fostering  collaboration  between  existing  large  companies  and  SMEs,  the 
region aims to attract large companies to the region in order to further draw upon the SME-
base and pull value chains. 

The Lighthouse Plants are flagship factories, selected in the context of the national Industry 
4.0 plan, whose aim is to support industrial innovation by  facilitating the formation of a 
"Club of innovators 4.0", typically involving large companies in Italy. The final goal is to 
encourage  the  transformation  of  the  entrepreneurial  ecosystem  and  the  emergence  of 
smart factories. 

There are four flagship factories, two of them with production units in Lombardy:  

•   Lighthouse Plant “Acciaio 4.0”. This pulls together the metallurgic companies Tenova 
(from  Varese)  and  Ori  Martin  (from  Brescia)  that  produces  special  steels.  The  joint 
production  site  uses 
inter-connected  machines  and  human-robot 
integration  processes,  to  make  “steel  4.0”.  The  partner  companies  will  develop  and 
experiment solutions that are not currently available on the market. Furthermore, they 
will cooperate with local research organisations for carrying out R&D (e.g. Politecnico 
di Milano, University of Brescia, CNR-STIIMA). The initiative is supported by the Ministry 
of Economic Development and Lombardy Region.  

innovative, 

•   Lighthouse Plant “ABB Italia”. This is a diffused factory with two plants in Lazio and one 
in Lombardy (Dalmine) where they produce switches. ABB digital solutions are applied 
across the Plant. In particular, automatic guided vehicles, collaborative robots, AI, big 
data analytics for maintenance and security, digital supply chain are all key features of 
this initiative.  

•   Lighthouse  Plant  “Hitachi  Rail  Italia”,  with  production  units  located  in  Tuscany, 

Campania and Calabria.  

•   Lighthouse Plant “Ansaldo Energia”, with production units located in Liguria.  

2.2.2  Horizontal assessment 

The number of SMEs is the region is comparatively high, where SMEs are particularly strong 
in working together and collaborating. There is also evidence that domestic SMEs are not 

3 https://www.afil.it/strategiccommunitiescall/ 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

sufficiently  embedded  in  -and  connected  with-  global  value  chains  dominated  by  large 
industrial  companies.  The  region  has  launched  a  couple  of  strong  initiatives  recently  to 
cope with that issue, but it is important to keep the momentum and to monitor progress 
(or  the  lack  thereof)  towards  a  stronger  integration  of  local  SMEs  into  global  industrial 
value chains. The region may want to invest also additional resources in the analysis of 
regional inter- and intra-industrial relationships (e.g. input/output tables). It is of utmost 
importance to better understand to what extent the presence of large industrial companies 
in the region is derived from ‘lock-in effects’ (historical choices) with no longer ties to local 
industry,  and  to  what  extent  the  regional  ecosystem  remains  a  vibrant  and  interesting 
place  for  global  activities.  Also,  characterising  the  role  and  positioning  of  the  regional 
industrial  activities  in  their  corresponding  value  chains  (e.g.  are  they  dominant  or 
dominated within the value chain? Do they represent a substantial part of the added value 
generated in the whole value chain or not?) is extremely important. Ultimately the regional 
ecosystem should be a mean to increase that added value.  

Companies in the region are often not aware of their need for innovation or the opportunity 
for  innovation.  There  is  a  need  for  a  clear  design  on  how  to  approach  this  (bringing 
stakeholders together). 

Identified collaboration areas in this regard include opportunities related to the mobilisation 
of  large  players:  e.g.  how  to  get  the  interest/need  of  large  players,  and  how  to  attract 
more large players to the region (learning from other regions). 

2.2.3  Assesment for the top 2 thematic priorities of the region 

Lombardy region has indicated that thematic priorities lie predominantly in digitalisation / 
industry 4.0 as well as MedTech, but also agri-food.  

Large players in the region of Lombardy are predominantly situated in the manufacturing 
sector (e.g. Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A.4, Pirelli & C. S.p.A.5). A material focus in the 
region is placed on plastics and metal, with 60% of Italian steel coming from Lombardy 
region. Other important value chains include brass, aluminium, light alloys, and plastics, 
the 
the  automotive 
particularly 
digitalisation/industry 4.0 area are for example Costamp Group6 and Valtellina Group7. A 
company in the MedTech area is for example Biorep8 and Bracco Imaging9. And companies 
in the agri-food sector are for example Colussi Group10 and Sacco System11. 

industry.  Companies 

targeted 

towards 

in 

Companies  are  looking  for  an  innovative  market  for  products,  with  special  solutions  for 
manufacturing as well as designing and producing one-of-a-kind machines. 

Identified  collaboration  opportunities  and  focus  points,  especially  related  to  those 
companies  involved  in  the  AFIL  cluster  lie  in  the  area  of  AI  as  well  as  a  de-  and 

4 https://www.alfaromeo.com/  

5 https://www.pirelli.com/tyres/en-ww/car/homepage  

6 https://www.costampgroup.it/it/index.aspx  

7 http://www.valtellinaspa.it/  

8 https://www.biorep.it/  

9 https://www.braccoimaging.com/pre-home  

10 http://www.colussigroup.com/  

11 https://www.saccosystem.com/  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

remanufacturing.  In  the  area  of  digitalisation,  the  following  subjects  are  particular 
strengths: advanced manufacturing, automation, and especially the integration of existing 
solutions. A challenge looking forward remains the aspect of Digital Innovation Hubs and 
how  these  can  ideally  provide  the  necessary  support  to  digitalisation  of  companies  and 
industries.  Typically,  it  is  expected  that  DIH  will  provide  the  necessary  technological 
orientation (e.g. with information on efficiency and productivity gains of specific solutions) 
and support for the digitalisation transition, which is perceived to be much broader than 
industry  4.0  alone.  In  addition,  a  specific  mapping  of  AI  technologies,  specifically  with 
regard to their impact on processes of enterprises would be perceived as helpful for the 
companies.  

2.3  Research System and universities 

2.3.1  General overview of the research and higher education system in the region 

The research and innovation system in Lombardy region are quite advanced and complex, 
and  it  is  characterised  by  a  wide  host  of  important  universities  and  RTOs.  Overall, 
investment  in  R&D,  both  public  and  private,  remains  a  limitation  of  Lombardy  at  only 
1.27% of GDP, equal to 454 euros per inhabitant. An additional element of weakness is 
human  capital,  an  essential  factor  for  the  attractiveness  and  competitiveness  of  the 
territory. Despite the strong progress made over the last four years, in 2017 the share of 
young 30 to 34 year olds in Lombardy holding a degree was equal to only 33.7% (Regional 
public system).  

Overall,  Lombardy  has  13  major  academic  institutions  (six  public  and  six  private 
universities, one polytechnic university) and a university school for advanced studies (IUSS 
in Pavia). Among them, the largest organisations are the University of Milan (over 40,000 
students),  Bicocca  University,  Polytechnic  of  Milan,  University  of  Pavia  and  Bocconi 
University (+10,000 students). The region also hosts 12 National Research Council (CNR) 
institutes  and  a  large  number  of  territorial  offices,  as  well  as two  centres  of  the  Italian 
Institute of Technology (IIT). A brief overview of the main regional features is provided 
below with a focus on the priority areas selected by the Region in the context of this project. 

The research institutions specialised in  advanced manufacturing / Industry 4.0  are: 
the CNR-STIIMA (Institute of Intelligent Industrial Systems and Technologies for Advanced 
Manufacturing, earlier called ITIA - Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation), 
the  Polytechnic  University  of  Milan,  the  University  of  Milan,  Bicocca  University,  the 
University  of  Brescia,  the  University  of  Bergamo,  the  University  of  Pavia  and  Insubria 
University.  

CNR-STIIMA12 was founded in 1963 in Milan. It hosts 29 laboratories and employs 142 
members of staff (including permanent staff, temporary staff and PhD students) of which 
132 is R&D staff. STIIMA's mission is to carry out specific research activities on enabling 
technologies, processes and products, which are integrated in a factory-level framework, 
in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the national economic system and to support 
the  development  of  new  employment,  prosperity,  sustainability  and  social  cohesion. 
STIIMA  holds  competencies  in  the  following  areas:  dynamic  analysis  and  simulation  of 
machinery;  micro  enabled  devices  and  systems;  intelligent  and  autonomous  robot 

12 http://www.stiima.cnr.it/it/  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

systems; machine and manufacturing control systems; enterprise engineering and virtual 
applications; manufacturing business models; intelligent sensing and perception. 

Other organisations that are worth mentioning in this field include: “Polo di Lecco” and the 
Centre for Nano Science and Technology (CNST).  “Polo di Lecco” is an initiative of the 
Polytechnic University of Milan in collaboration with the CNR. This new university campus 
dedicates 40,000 square metres to education, student and research services, specialising 
designing, testing and developing new manufacturing solutions. CNST13 is located in Milan 
and  has  competences  in  material  chemistry,  molecular  electronics,  printed  electronics, 
nanotechnology  fabrication  and  optical-photo  physical-morphological  and  theoretical 
characterisation.  

It  is  estimated  that  there  are  2,946  researchers,  professors,  research  fellows  and  PhD 
students  working  on  advanced  manufacturing  topics  in  Lombardy.14  The  CNR  employs 
approximately 900 researchers, and it is estimated that about 15% of them work in the 
area of Industry 4.0.  

The main academic and research and technology organisations active in the Health / Life 
sciences sector include the following: University of Milan, Polytechnic University of Milan, 
Pharmacological  Research  Institute  “Mario  Negri”,  Catholic  University  of  Milan,  “San 
Raffaele”  Foundation,  Vita-Salute  San  Raffaele  University,  National  Research  Council, 
Bicocca University of Milan, University of Pavia, “Carlo Besta” Neurological Institute (these 
have been ordered on the basis of the resources obtained so far from the most recent EU 
framework programmes for research and innovation: FP7 and Horizon 2020).  

Apart from the universities, the following organisations are particularly relevant for Med 
Tech,  among  the  mentioned  ones.  The  Pharmacological  Research  Institute  “Mario 
Negri”15 is a not-for-profit biomedical research institute. It employs over 550 people in 
three  research  units  located  in  Milan,  Bergamo  and  Ranica  (BG).  The  mission  is  to 
understand  the  functional  mechanisms  of  living  organisms  and  study  the  causes  and 
determinants of diseases. The Institute also evaluates the effectiveness of treatments and 
preventive  measures,  as  well  as  of  scientific  public  information  campaigns.  The  “Mario 
Negri”  Institute  is  organised  in  nine  departments  (biochemistry  and  molecular 
pharmacology, biomedical engineering, cardiovascular medicine, environment and health 
sciences,  molecular  medicine,  neuroscience,  oncology,  public  health,  rare  disease,  and 
renal medicine) and in three research centres: the Centre for Health Regulatory Policy, the 
Centre for Health Economics and the Centre for Clinical Research “Aldo e Cele Daccò”.  

The “San Raffaele” Foundation16 has been created in 2012 to support the IRCCS San 
Raffaele  Hospital  in  improving  the  integration  between  scientific  research  and  clinical 
practice.  The  Institute  carries  out  research  in  eight  scientific  areas:  neurological  and 
psychiatric  diseases;  regenerative  medicine;  cancer;  metabolic  and  cardiovascular 
diseases;  genetic,  molecular  and  cellular  mechanisms  of  disease  and  aging; 
pharmacogenomics; molecular and cellular imaging. 

13 https://www.iit.it/centers/cnst-polimi  

14 Source: Regione Lombardia (2015). 

15 https://www.marionegri.it/  

16 https://www.fondazionesanraffaele.it/  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

The  “Carlo  Besta”  Neurological  Institute17  is  fully  specialised  in  research,  diagnosis 
and  treatment  of  the  most  significant  neurological  diseases  in  adults  and  children.  The 
Institute is recognised as a centre of national and international excellence in the field of 
neuroscience (neurology, child neuropsychiatry, neurosurgery and oncological pathologies, 
chronic  and  rare  diseases).  The  institute  carries  out  both  basic  scientific  research  and 
preclinical / clinical trials for the development of new drugs and therapies. 

In this area, the most relevant institutes of the National Research Council located in the 
region are: the Milan office of the Institute of Clinical Physiology (CNR-IFC18), the Institute 
of Chemistry of Molecular Recognition (CNR-ICRM19) and the Milan office of the Institute 
for Genetic and Biomedical Research (CNR-IRGB20).  

Furthermore, CNAO the National Center of Oncological Hadrontherapy for the treatment 
of tumours21 is located in Pavia. The centre was established in 2001 by the Italian ministry 
of Health. It offers personalised cancer treatments with protons and carbon ions to national 
and international patients and it carries out research projects in the field of hadrontherapy. 
The  centre  is  strongly  tied  to  the  University  of  Milan,  the  Polytechnic  of  Milan  and  the 
University of Pavia. They also have a well-established international research network and 
collaboration  network  with  Lombardian  companies.  Due  to  the  good  relations  with 
Lombardian  Universities  more  than  200  students  and  international  students  perform  a 
master thesis or PhD research project in collaboration with CNAO after which many apply 
for a position within the company. This leads to a brain gain for the centre. They also open 
their doors regularly to students from high schools in the region to familiarise them with 
physics and the medical field. 

Finally,  it  is  worth  mentioning  that  the  Centre  for  Genomic  Science  of  the  Italian 
Institute of Technology22 is also located in Milan. The centre applies modern genomic 
technologies for a better understanding of complex biological processes and diseases, with 
particular attention on cancer. 

Lombardy performs well in terms of scientific relevance of publications and at the ability to 
access  European  funding.  Lombardy  registered  93.7  patent  applications  to  the  EPO  by 
priority year per million inhabitants in 2012. This is higher than the European average of 
70.4, but lower in comparison to other European advanced regions. Patent data shows that 
interregional cooperation is well stimulated within the Lombardy region. 337 patents have 
been co-applied with other countries and 29 of them have been co-applied with other EER 
regions  (Île-de-France  (29),  Flanders  (2),  Catalonia  (2)  and  Marche  (2)).  Patent 
applications are mainly in the high knowledge content fields such as ICT, high-tech and 
biotechnology. But high-tech patent applications of Lombardy are lower than the European 
average (Technopolis Group). 

The  figure  below  describes  the  participation  of  Lombardy  in  Horizon  2020.  Most  of  the 
funds are obtained by the advanced manufacturing and the ICT sector.  

17 https://www.istituto-besta.it/  

18 https://www.ifc.cnr.it/index.php/en/le-sedi/milano  

19 http://www.icrm.cnr.it  

20 https://www.irgb.cnr.it/about-us/  

21 https://fondazionecnao.it/en/  

22 https://www.iit.it/centers/cgs-semm  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Figure 1: Basic profile Lombardy (ITC4) on participation in Horizon 2020 

EUR  million  obtained  (2014-2018)  and  no.  of 
participations in Horizon 2020 

Distribution of H2020 funds (%) obtained by type 
of organisation 

Funds  obtained  (EUR  million)  and participations 
(no.) by type of organisation 

Funds obtained (EUR million) by sector 

Source:  RED  ©  2019  (ISMERI  Europa);  data  can  be  consulted  on  the  R&T  Telescope™ 
(www.technology-telescope.com) 

2.3.2  Horizontal assessment 

Lombardy as a region has a very strong and competitive research system that is able to 
bring together core expertise and stakeholders to enforce its strong position and to remain 
competitive at the European and international research scale. At European scale, Lombardy 
region is able to obtain especially a lot of funding in the area of advanced manufacturing 
technologies, ICT and health technology, according to Horizon 2020 participation, where 
the participants themselves are also over 60% enterprises. This shows a high engagement 
and collaboration rate between companies and research sector in order to be significantly 
competitive in capturing EU funding.  

16 

 
 
 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

That  being  said,  universities  and  research  institutes  are  found  to  be  decidedly 
entrepreneurship adverse, and do not have programmes nor commitment to support the 
creation of spin-offs or start-ups based on research outcomes. Some universities allow for 
a  leave  of  absence  to  be  taken  for  the  formation  of  a  company,  however,  this  depends 
highly on the specific work that is planned to be  carried out by that company. In cases 
where the university is the patent owner, research entrepreneurs that would like to develop 
a commercial solution (i.e. to create a new company based on a university owned patent) 
are  challenged  with  legal  and  financial  barriers  by  the  university  itself.  However, 
universities are also reluctant to file patents and fund them in the first place. The exception 
being  that  there  is  a  ‘Professor  privilege’,  which  allows  professors  that  have  made  an 
accidental  discovery  to  file  for  a  patent  personally,  rather  than  being  required  to  file  it 
jointly with the university. There is a strong need to have further support for researchers 
in the area of obtaining and also licencing patents, to support entrepreneurial spirit coming 
from universities. The region might want to investigate some opened or semi-opened IPR 
models  used  elsewhere  (i.e.  Imec  in  Belgium)  where  co-creation  of  knowledge  (in  the 
context of e.g. a spin-off being created for the exploitation of technologies developed at 
the university) is reflected in shared IPR (co-licensing, exclusive licensing etc).  

Specifically, for the area of MedTech, it appears that also the medical committee in Italy 
poses hurdles for necessary clinical trials that are only overcome by searching for other EU 
partners and regions to carry out vital clinical studies.  

2.3.3  Assessment for the top 2 thematic priorities 

Considering the two thematic priorities put forward by Lombardy region (Industry  4.0 / 
digitalisation  and  MedTech),  Lombardy  does  seem  to  have  strengths  in  the  overarching 
areas of ‘advanced manufacturing’, ‘ICT and telecommunications’ and ‘health’ according to 
‘Revealed Comparative Advantage’ (RCA) using Horizon 2020 participation data from 2014-
2017. The more a region is receiving H2020 funding for a specific key area, compared to 
the average funding the region receives across all areas, and compared to what the other 
regions  receive  for  the  same  area  against  all  areas,  the  more  the  region  will  be 
‘specialised’23.  

At EU level the area of ‘advanced manufacturing’ has been dedicated 3.3. billion EUR of 
Horizon 2020 resources between 2014-2017, where the majority of support went to high 
performance  manufacturing.  Lombardy  is  revealed  to  be  highly  specialised  in  ‘digital 
factories’ within the area of ‘advanced manufacturing’ and specialised in ‘adaptive, smart, 
zero-defect manufacturing’, ‘green manufacturing’ and ‘high performance manufacturing’.  

Within the area of ‘ICT and telecommunication’, which has received roughly 3.4 billion EUR 
of Horizon 2020 funding between 2014-2017, Lombardy shows that it is highly specialised 
in  ‘innovative  components  and  equipment’  and  specialised  in  ‘advanced  computing’  and 
‘telecommunication architectures and systems’, however it is not specialised (e.g. it scores 
around  or  under  the  average  H2020  funding  received  across  all  regions)  in  ‘cognitive 
systems and AI’, nor ‘content technologies’ .  

23  In  this  case,  The  RCA  of  a  region  in  a  certain  key  research  area  is  expressed  as  follows:  RCA  = 
(RFij/RFit)/(RFnj/RFnt); where RFij is H2020 research funding in Country i and for key research area j while RFit 
is  the  total  H2020  research  funding  in  Country  i;  RFnj  is  the  total  H2020  research  funding  in  all  European 
Countries, in key research area j, while RFnt is the total H2020 research funding in all European countries and 
for  all  key  research  areas.  The  numerator  measures  the  share  of  funding  that  Country  i  received  out  all  the 
funding it received for H2020 projects. The denominator measures instead the share of funding that all European 
countries received out all the funding they received for H2020. 

17 

 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

In the area of ‘health’, Lombardy is specialised in ‘biomedical tools and devices’, ‘e-health’, 
‘medical  diagnostics’  and  ‘regenerative  medicine and  advanced  therapies’,  however  it  is 
not specialised in other areas such as ‘basic medical research’, ‘drugs and therapies’, nor 
‘public  health  and  policy’  (e.g.  it  scores  around  or  under  the  average  H2020  funding 
received  across  all  regions).  E-Health  is  the  most  important  area  in  Europe  which 
concentrates 23.1% of resources (3.1 billion from 2014-2017). 

Valorisation  of  the  specialisation  and  expertise  gained  through  Horizon  2020  projects 
remains  a  challenge  across  many  EU  regions,  Lombardy  included.  There  is  a  need  to 
support researchers in thinking in an entrepreneurial fashion, and in realising the market 
potential  of  the  solutions  developed  to  their  fullest.  Universities  play  a  key  role  in 
supporting the researchers to obtain patents, where there is a need to develop the mindset 
as well as mechanisms to enable these patents to be used to develop spin-offs / spinouts 
and companies, taking these solutions to market.  

In  the  medical  field  the  region  is  lacking  an  effective  oncology  network.  Now  patients 
directly need to address the CNAO institute. If hospitals would be able to identify eligible 
patients and send them on to the centre, better and faster treatment can be delivered to 
patients. This network should involve as well focus groups who can raise awareness among 
citizens and other stakeholders for this innovative hydron therapy treatment. 

2.4  Market services and ecosystem builders 

2.4.1  General overview 

Within the region Lombardy there are several clusters that can be identified as ecosystem 
builders.  CTL  (Cluster  Tecnologici  Lombardi)  are  aggregations  of  companies,  public 
and  private  research  organisations,  existing  industrial  and  technology  districts.  They 
promote research and technology transfer in various industries (see the following table). 
The most relevant CTL, in relation to the priority areas selected by the Region in the context 
of the present project, include:  

•  

“Associazione Fabbrica Intelligente Lombardia” (AFIL) which focuses on smart factories. 
AFIL aims to promote and facilitate research and innovation with regards to practices 
and enabling technologies for the manufacturing sector. AFIL promotes cooperation in 
research and innovation projects. It cooperates with the Regional Administration on the 
definition  of  policy  initiatives  for  the  manufacturing  sector  and  supports  regional 
companies in their extra-regional networking through the participation in the national 
cluster “Fabbrica Intelligente” (CFI).  

•   The Lombardy’s Life Sciences Cluster promotes R&D cooperation between public and 
private  organisations  on  various  topics:  pharmaceuticals,  biotechnologies,  medical 
devices, health / wellbeing, and digital health. The main activities of this CTL consist of 
supporting research and innovation in private and public sector, promoting technology 
transfer and knowledge sharing, and enhancing the visibility of the regional life science 
sector at national and international level. 

Table 2: List of Lombardy technological clusters – CTL 

NAME/AREA 

DATE OF 
CREATION 

WEBSITE 

High Technology Cluster Agrofood Lombardy -  2012 

www.clusteragrofoodlombardia.eu 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

NAME/AREA 

DATE OF 
CREATION 

WEBSITE 

CAT.AL  

Lombardy Energy Cleantech Cluster 

2013 

www.energycluster.it  

Lombardy Aerospace Cluster 

2009 

www.aerospacelombardia.it 

Lombardy Green Chemistry Association 

2013 

www.chimicaverdelombardia.it  

Lombardy Smart Factory Association 

2013 

www.afil.it 

Lombardy Cluster Life Science 

2013 

www.lombardialifesciences.it  

Lombardy Cluster Mobility 

2013 

www.clusterlombardomobilita.it 

Lombardy 
Communities  

Cluster 

Smart 

Cities  & 

2013 

www.clusterscclombardia.it 

Lombardy Cluster Living Environment  

2014 

clustertav.lombardia.it 

Technology  Poles  are  supported  by  local  administrations,  industry  associations, 
chambers  of  commerce,  etc.  The  majority  of  them  was  created  in  the  ‘80s  as  local 
development initiatives. In general, Technology Poles support the participation of SMEs in 
regional/national funding programmes and offer advanced and technical services such as 
quality certification, staff training and laboratory tests.  

Five Science and Technology Parks24 are located in Lombardy. They operate in specific 
industrial sectors and provide services and facilities to support high-innovative start-ups. 
Most of the Lombardy parks specialise on issues related to Industry 4.0 and smart systems 
(especially Kilometro Rosso) and on the life science sector (Kilometro Rosso, Technology 
Park Padano, Technology Pole of Pavia, Bergamo Sviluppo). 

Table 3: List of science and technology parks located in Lombardy 

Name 

Province  Year 

WEBSITE 

Kilometro Rosso 

Comonext 

BG 

CO 

2004  http://www.kilometrorosso.com/  

2010  https://www.comonext.it/ 

Technology Park Padano 

LO 

2010  https://www.ptp.it/ 

Technology Pole of Pavia 

PV 

2012  http://www.polotecnologicopavia.it/ 

Bergamo Sviluppo 

BG 

1994  https://www.bergamosviluppo.it/sito/index.php 

24 http://www.apsti.it/  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Kilometro Rosso is certainly one of the most relevant parks, located just outside the city 
of  Bergamo,  in  an  area  where  the  presence  of  companies  specialised  in  manufacturing 
metal, machinery and electronic component is very high. The Park’s mission is to promote 
the development of a knowledge hub that pools together innovation-driven companies and 
scientific  and  R&D  centres  focusing  on  advanced  technologies.  Kilometro  Rosso  hosts, 
among  the  many  research  partners,  Intellimech,  a  consortium  of  high-tech  enterprises 
dedicated  to  interdisciplinary  research  on  mechatronics,  which  comprises  advanced 
electronics,  computer  and  ICT  systems  and  mechanical  design  for  application  in  a  wide 
range of industrial fields. Intellimech is the most important Italian private initiative in this 
sector, which can count on the cooperation of a large number of high-tech enterprises of 
varying size that operate in northern Italy. 

Incubators/accelerators  are  numerous  in  Lombardy  and  play  an  important  role  as 
ecosystem builders. According to the information provided by Venterup project25, there are 
35 subjects in Lombardy that are listed in the following table.  

Table 4: Accelerators/Incubators located in Lombardy 

Name 

Province 

WEBSITE 

Bio4Dreams 

MI 

https://www.bio4dreams.com/it/  

ComoNExT – Innovation Hub  CO 

https://www.comonext.it/ 

Filarete Foundation 

PoliHub 

Speed MI Up 

Bioupper 

BiovelocITA 

Bizmatica 

Boox 

D-Namic 

Digital Magics 

Euroimpresa Legnano 

FabriQ 

Technology 

Fashion 
Accelerator 
District  Foundation  Green  & 
High-Tech  

G2-Start-ups 

MI 

MI 

MI 

MI 

MI 

MI 

MI 

https://www.fondazionefilarete.com/it/ 

https://www.polihub.it/  

http://www.speedmiup.it/#  

http://www.bioupper.com/ 

https://www.biovelocita.com/ 

https://www.bizmatica.com/ 

http://www.boox.it/ 

BR/VA 

http://www.d-namic.it/accelerator/ 

MI 

MI 

MI 

MI 

MB 

MI 

http://www.digitalmagics.com/ 

https://www.euroimpresa.it/ 

http://www.fabriq.eu/ 

https://www.ftaccelerator.it/ 

http://www.distrettohtmb.it/ 

https://g2-start-ups.it/ 

25 Venterup is a project promoted by AFI (Italian Private Equity, Venture Capital and Private Debt Association) 
and the Italian Investment Fund - SGR SpA https://www.ventureup.it/progetto/ 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Name 

Province 

WEBSITE 

IFOM-IEO 

Impact Hub 

InnoVits 

Italian Brand Factory 

Make a Cube 

Openzone Bresso 

Technology Park Padano 

R.Q. srl 

Sanipedia 

Servitec 

Social4Social 

StartMiUp 

Super Partes 

TIM #WCAP 

Talent Garden 

Tezemech 

UniCredit Start Lab 

Vodafone Xone 

Supernova 

MI 

MI 

MI 

MI 

MI 

MI 

LO 

MI 

MI 

BS 

MI 

MI 

BS 

MI 

MI 

BS 

MI 

MI 

MI 

https://www.ifom-ieo-campus.it/ 

https://impacthub.net/ 

https://innovits.it/ 

http://www.italianbrandfactory.it/ 

http://makeacube.com/ 

https://www.openzone.it/index.php 

https://www.ptp.it/ 

http://www.rqsrl.it/ 

https://www.sanipedia.com/ 

http://www.servitec.it/ 

http://www.social4social.org/ 

http://www.digitaldistrict.it/it/organisations/startmiup 

https://www.superpartes.biz/ 

https://www.wcap.tim.it/it/hub/milano 

https://talentgarden.org/en-it/ 

http://www.tezemech.com/ 

https://www.unicreditstartlab.eu/it.html 

https://vodafonexone.nz/ 

http://www.supernova-hub.it/ 

Among these, eight incubators have obtained a certification of the Ministry of Economic 
Development (DL 179/2012): Comonext, Digital Magics SpA, Impact Hub srl, Make a Cube 
srl,  Talent  Garden  Milano  srl,  Polihub  srl,  Supernova  srl,  and  Techinnova  srl.  This 
certification  is  granted  to  the  companies  that  meet  specific  requirements  relating  to 
infrastructures and equipment, staff and, above all, experience in supporting start-up and 
growth  of  innovative  companies.  Therefore,  these  certified  organisations  represent  a 
national excellence in the field of incubation and acceleration of new companies with high 
technological value.  

Two incubators are mostly oriented towards Industry 4.0 and smart systems: 

•   Talent Garden Milano is a platform for communities of innovators. It is a network of co-

working campuses which provides infrastructures, equipment and services to start-ups.  

•   Teze Mechatronics was created in 2012 in Brescia and supports start-ups in the areas 
of mechatronics, alternative energy sources and biomechanics. Start-ups are tutored 
by entrepreneurs, company managers and university staff.  

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

The  incubators  /  accelerators  that  operate  exclusively  in  Med Tech/life  sciences  are the 
following: 

•   Bio4Dreams is an incubator which was created in 2017 as spin-out of Sanipedia. The 
incubator is fully dedicated to facilitating innovative start-ups in the very early stage, 
supporting the entrepreneurial projects of young researchers;  

•   BioUpper  is  the  first  Italian  training  and  acceleration  platform  that  supports  new 
business  ideas  in  the  field  of  life  sciences.  It  is  born  from  a  partnership  between 
Novartis and Fondazione Cariplo, in collaboration with PoliHub and Humanitas; 

•   BiovelocITA  is  the  first  Italian  biotech  accelerator.  It  was  founded  by  Sofinnova 
Partners,  a  market-leading  venture  capital  firm  specialising  in  biosciences.  The 
accelerator  supports  the  development  of  innovative  biotech  companies  in  all 
therapeutic areas. 

•  

IFOM-IEO is an incubator and research centre focused on molecular oncology, created 
by  a  partnership  between  the  FIRC  Institute  of  Molecular  Oncology  (IFOM)  and  the 
Department of Experimental Oncology of the European Institute of Oncology (IEO); 

•   Filarete Foundation aims at transferring technology to SMEs in the fields of life sciences, 
biotechnology and health. The foundation collaborates with a network of companies, 
researchers and institutions. 

In terms of publicly funded support, during the EER year 2016 Lombardy region was able 
to  progress  in  the  implementation  and  launch  of  a  series  of  programmes  specifically 
targeted  towards  injecting  momentum  into  the  regional  entrepreneurial  ecosystem 
(Lombardy  Region  -  DG  for  Universities,  Research  and  Open  Innovation,  2017).  These 
included:  

−  Smart Fashion and Design: targeting specifically projects in the fashion industry 
with companies in partnership with the public or private research organisations. 
The total budget for the calls was allocated at 32 million EUR.  

−  Smart  Living:  targeting  specifically  projects  bringing  together  companies  and 
universities  to  develop  smart  living  solutions,  oriented  towards  safety,  welfare, 
health and environmental sustainability while drawing upon key technologies. The 
total budget allocated is 15 million EUR.  

−  Research/Development line for aggregations: targeting projects that support 
industrial research and development carried out by (M)SMEs together with large 
companies and research organisations. Total budget 120 million EUR.  

− 

Innovation line – ROP ERDF 2014-2020: through a mixture of public / private 
funding, two sub-measures are supported. Firstly, in the area of industrialisation, 
R&D  aimed  at  improvement  of  existing  products  (technical  characteristics, 
components,  materials,  embedded  software,  etc.)  or  the  creation  of  a  new 
product.  Secondly  in  the  area  of  improving  techniques  related  to  software  and 
processes. Both lines together are allocated 110 million EUR.  

−  Voucher  for  the  development  of  cooperative  enterprises:  targeting 
innovation  in  products,  processes  and  social  innovation  specifically  related  to 
services  and  circles  cooperative.  The  focus  is  related  to  agri-food,  life  science, 
social innovation and environment with a total budget of 600,000 EUR.  

−  Call  for  dissemination  of  corporate  social  responsibility  within  Lombard 
MSME’s:  the  focus  is  oriented  towards  financing  companies  in  the  area  of 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

sustainable development, green economy and social innovation. The total budget 
is 850,000 EUR.  

−  ERDF  FRIM  Fund  2020:  the  focus  is  to  support  and  encourage  investment  in 
business innovation, process innovation, sustainable development and competitive 
growth. The total funding amounts to 30 million EUR.  

−  Call  Research &  Innovation e.  2016  (Measures  A, B  and  C):  The measure 
aims to bring together SMEs and research organisations in order to tackle themes 
such as new digital technologies, and innovation processes. Specifically, projects 
awarded  with  the  seal  of  excellence  within  Phase  1  of  the  SME  instrument  are 
targeted. The total budget is 2.95 million EUR.  

− 

Intrapendo:  This  measure  specific  target  start-ups  and  should  spur  on  the 
entrepreneurial culture in Lombardy. Particular attend was given to persons aged 
35 or und and  50 or over with highly innovative and technological content. The 
total budget was 15 million EUR.  

−  Umbrella Fund: This fund aimed to develop a venture capital market in favour of 

expanding companies. The total budget was 100-120 million EUR.  

−  Expert  Business  Manager  –  Enterprises:  Specifically targeting new business 

models, this support was allocated a total of 4 million EUR.  

−  While these initiatives should reinforce entrepreneurship in the region, they remain 
quite  recent  to  allow  for  a  proper  assessment  of  potential  impacts.  To  our 
knowledge, an encompassing monitoring and impact assessment study still needs 
to occur in this regard.  

2.4.2  Horizontal assessment 

For Lombardy region it would be needed to:  

−  boost disruptive and paradigm-changing innovation and technologies, to promote 

new socially - oriented products among others;  

−  establish  new  forms  of  collaboration,  partnership,  knowledge-sharing  and  co-

innovation among a vast network of trusted actors;  

− 

foster start-up-oriented ecosystems led by large companies (larger companies can 
serve as a point of guidance and should help to incubate start-ups in order to spur 
high-risk research and innovation).  

The needs could be translated in a few concrete actions such as: 

−  Highly  qualified  resources  (vouchers,  financial  support  for  high  qualified  human 

resources); 

− 

Logistics facilities; 

−  Boost  partnerships  with  research  institutes,  Italian  and  foreign  hospitals  and 

universities; 

−  Tech Transfer process support; 

−  Study and evaluation of advanced technologies that require a conscious action of 

addressing and selection; 

−  Communication actions of initiatives already undertaken; 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

−  Easy-terms loans public financing. 

The  following  horizontal  areas  and  challenges  are  relevant  for  all  companies,  but  also 
specifically for scaleups in Lombardy region:  

1.  Skills (obtainment): In Lombardy this remains an issue that companies cannot 
find the people they are looking for, while simultaneously youth unemployment is 
high.  In  general,  the  number  of  students  in  select  domains  that  are  particularly 
relevant  for  industry  appear  to  be  decreasing,  such  as  electronic  engineering. 
Companies  start  to  develop  skills  and  educational  programmes  inhouse  as 
universities and the educational system cannot necessarily provide workers that fit 
their specific needs.  

2.  Skills (retention): Salaries in Italy are not comparable to other EU regions. There 
is a considerable loss to Switzerland, the UK and Germany, as well as other border 
countries.  

3.  Financing:  Some  organisations  exist,  such  as  Italia  start-up.  More  funds  are 
appearing,  however  the  culture  in  Italy  remains  risk  averse,  and  the  political 
instability is perceived as deterring and risky.  

Based on this, specific collaboration opportunities could include:  

−  Skills / learning: how to design the education programmes to fit the needs of 

local industry 

−  Attractiveness:  how  to  highlight  the  advantages  of  working  for  start-ups  or 

scale-ups while also tackling the issue of brain-drain due to wages (low) 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

3  FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP  

3.1  Quick snapshot of the industry and economic performance 

Lombardy  is  the  second  richest  region  in  Italy  after  South  Tyrol,  with  a  GDP per  capita 
about 30% higher than the national and the EU average. In 2017, with €380.96billion, it 
has the fifth highest GDP among European regions and represents more than one fifth of 
the  National  GDP.  In  2017,  67.3%  of  the  people  were  employed  in  services,  31.5%  in 
industrial sectors and 1.2% in agriculture (DG GROW, 2019). 

According to the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2019, Lombardy is a moderate innovator. 
The innovation performance of Lombardy increased with 8% during the period 2011 and 
2019. The top three indicators are ‘Employment medium and high tech’ (147.30 of the EU 
score), ‘SMEs innovating in-house’ (138.99 of the EU score) and ‘Trademark applications’ 
(131.86 of the EU score). The lowest is ‘R&D expenditure public sector (57.43% of the EU 
score) (DG GROW, 2019). 

Lombardy is characterised by a wide variety of industries ranging from traditional sectors, 
such as agriculture and livestock to heavy and light industries. The main sectors are as 
follows:  mechanical,  electronics,  metallurgy,  textiles,  chemicals  and  petrochemicals, 
pharmaceuticals, food, publishing, footwear and furniture. The manufacturing sector has 
the  highest  amount  of  businesses  at  a  European  level  (Regiona  Lombardia,  2015).  The 
service  sector  is  also very well  developed  and  mostly  related  to  international  trade  and 
financial services (DG GROW, 2019).  

According to the Lombardy innovation monitor, the region has one of the highest rates of 
entrepreneurship in Europe. In the beginning of 2015, around 813.000 active businesses 
were located in Lombardy. This corresponds to 15.7% of all active businesses in Italy. 99% 
of these companies are small and medium-sized enterprises, most of them family owned. 
This  makes  Lombardy’s  production  system  currently  one  of  the  most  developed  in  Italy 
and in Europe (Regiona Lombardia, 2015). 

3.2  Human capital  

Lombardy, as a region, has a high proportion of universities that form a key part in the 
development of human capital and innovation. Overall, Lombardy has 13 major academic 
institutions  (six  public  and  six  private  universities,  one  polytechnic  university)  and  a 
university school for advanced studies (IUSS in Pavia). According to 2017 data, the rate of 
completed tertiary education amongst persons aged 30-34 was at roughly 33.7%. While 
this is generally above the Italian average of 26.9%, it still lies below the EU average of 
39.9% (European Commission, 2019).   

Lombardy  employs  a  large  portion  of  the  labour  force  in  the  manufacturing  sector.    It 
remains  critical  that  the  manufacturing  sector  is competitive  and  focuses  efforts  on  the 
modernisation and digitalisation of industry, which can be attained through key strategies 
and  investment  (OECD,  2011).  As  the  third  manufacturing  region  in  Europe,  Lombardy 
employs over 1 million persons in over 100,000 companies in this sector. Specifically, the 
high-tech sectors employed roughly 4.7% of the working population in 2017, higher than 
both the EU and Italian average (European Commission, 2019). 

In addition, due to the comparatively lower wages observed in Lombardy as compared to 
other European regions, highly skilled and highly educated workers are leaving the region 
– even already as students. A negative flow of students and young researchers are leaving 

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European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Italy, with destinations predominantly in the UK and Germany, but also Switzerland. Few 
international students come to Lombardy, which can be attributed to language challenges 
but  also  the  low  perspectives  on  salaries  and  career.  Those  students  that  remain  in 
Lombardy are challenged by under-developed student support systems, which often results 
in long studies and consequently entry into the labour market at a more advanced age.  

Companies  point  towards  a  skills  gap  in  Lombardy,  where  it  is  not  possible  to  identify 
graduates  with  the  right  skills  in  the  right  quantities  directly  from  the  universities.  For 
example, student enrolment in electronic engineering is decreasing, while for industry the 
need  for  skilled  workers  in  electronic  engineering  is  increasing.  Thus,  companies  are 
developing skills more and more inhouse in order to have the necessary skills in the short 
term.  As  companies  are  developing  education  and  training  programmes  often 
independently of one another, there is a need to coordinate the efforts and align the skills 
education. 

3.3  Financial capital  

3.3.1  General overview of access to finance in the region  

Lombardy region includes the city of Milan, which is one of the financial capitals of Europe, 
and the most financially oriented city in Italy. Milan itself holds the most important stocks 
for Italy and the region itself has a high density of financial intermediaries. Despite efforts 
to reduce this number, this is still a persistent issue.  

Major bank groups include Intesa San Paolo and Unicredit. In 2008, roughly ¼ of banks 
has  their  official  seat  in  Lombardy  region.  That  being  said,  Lombardy  only  account  for 
roughly 10% of the credit cooperative banks, responsible for granting loans (OECD, 2012). 

Funding is crucial for start- and scale-ups. Start-ups in the Lombardy region primarily use 
seed  funding  (61%)  followed  by  pre-seed  (13.6%)  and  angel  investments  (6.8%) 
(Crunchbase, 2019).  

Finlombarda Spa  - Finanziaria per lo Sviluppo della Lombardia  S.p.A. is the regional in-
house  bank  that  is  responsible  for  supporting  regional  policies,  enterprises,  and  the 
regional authority through specific financial management tools and initiatives. The financial 
company  is  completely  owned  by  the  regional  authority  of  Lombardy  with  no  other 
participation.  Finlombarda  is  also  responsible  for  managing  the  European  and  regional 
funds  with  the  aim  of  promoting  the  region,  its  competitiveness,  innovativeness  and 
internationalisation (European Commission, 2019).  

Among  others,  Finlombarda  is  responsible  for  managing  calls,  application  process  and 
financial  administration  of  awarded  funding  by  the  region.  Finlombarda  also  provides 
expertise  in  the  area  of  business  development,  technological  innovation  and  strategic 
planning (Lombardy Region - DG for Universities, Research and Open Innovation, 2017).  

3.3.2  Horizontal assessment  

Regional stakeholders have highlighted two needs for scale-ups, of which one is financing. 
Some organisations exist, such as Italia Start-up. More funds are being set-up, however 
the  investment  culture  in  Italy  is  very  risk  averse.  Furthermore,  political  instability  is 
perceived as potentially deterring and fosters the risk aversity.  

From  the  funding  point  of  view,  a  joint  public  and  private  action  to  improve  the 
capitalisation of SMEs is relevant, especially after the abolition of Economic Growth Support 

26 

 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

(Central/Governmental  Italian  support).  The  main  challenge  continues  to  be  that  of 
dimensional growth, or the ability of each company to go from micro to small, from small 
to medium and from medium to large. 

For high-tech start-ups, the struggle in obtaining funding often lies in the fact that investors 
are  not  able  to  adequately  understand  the  technology,  not  understand  the  statistical 
information presented from initial results.  

Grants and funding from the regional authority are noted to be very cumbersome in their 
obtainment.  Reaching  the  phase  of  payment  often  takes  several  years  and  does  not 
necessarily provide funding in key stages of the company development. It is suggested not 
to rely or include the regional funding obtained in the official financial planning. 

Interregional cooperation could potentially contribute to a few challenges that have been 
brought  up  by  regional  stakeholders  related  to  financing  by  creating  a  network  of 
‘unlocking’ investment funds that help companies obtain a kind of ‘seal of excellence’ and 
in turn obtain further support.  

3.4  Infrastructure for local needs and global access 

Lombardy’s transport infrastructure is very well established, and enables the movement of 
a  lot  of  travellers,  as  well  as  goods.  There  are  three  main  international  airports  in 
Lombardy, and Lombardy in the 9th region for airport infrastructure in Europe. The railway 
system is well connected and in planned to be further developed to allow for high-speed 
international connections, e.g. from Milan to Paris via TGV. The road network consists of 
more than 700km of motorways, 10,000km of provincial road and 58,000km of municipal 
road and enabled 22.3% of the national total  of  goods transport in  2015 with over 200 
million tonnes (Regione Lombardia, 2017).  

Regarding ICT and telecommunications infrastructure, Lombardy region needs to provide 
particular attention to infrastructure gaps, especially in the alpine space. There are ad hoc 
plans, as well as an INFRATEL tender that will support the provision of ultra-broadband in 
areas where this is still lacking. Generally, a positive trend to address telecommunication 
and ICT gaps in the alpine space can be observed (Regione Lombardia - General Directorate 
University, Research and Open Innovation , 2016).  

3.5  Culture 

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2014, Italy has a low business birth rate 
as a result of general factors that hinder the activity of a company, discouraging the start 
of new ventures. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2018/19, Italy scores 
amongst the highest countries covered (4/49) with regard to ‘perceived fear of failure’, as 
well  as  one  of  the  lowest  with  regard  to  the  ‘perceived  opportunities’  and  ‘perceived 
capabilities’ (resp. 37/49 and 44/49). These scores reflect moreover a downward trend and 
deteriorating  situation  since  the  2008-2013  economic  and  financial  crise.  Specifically 
targeted towards entrepreneurship there is a need to make more effective use of training 
at different levels (Muffatto, et al., 2014).  

27 

 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

4  POLICY MIX FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP  

4.1  National framework for entrepreneurship support  

National strategy promoting entrepreneurship and new enterprises  

The year 2012 saw the Italian government strengthen efforts and the policy framework to 
support the establishment and growth of high-tech and innovative enterprises. The efforts 
are outlined in the Decree-Law 179/2012 on “Further urgent measures for Italy’s economic 
growth”, also known as “Decreto Crescita 2.0” (“Growth Decree 2.0”), converted into Law 
221/2012 better known as the Start-up Act.  

The Start-up Act is apolicy framework that aims to promote and support the development 
and creation of start-ups. This policy includes an entire bundle of policy instruments that 
are potentially relevant for successful innovation, including cutting red tape and facilitating 
entry and exit to the market; tax incentives; tailor made labour laws; flexible remuneration 
schemes; incentives for equity crowd funding; etc26.  

Additional revisions to the legislation (including Decree-Law 76/2013, known as “Decree 
on Labour”, Decree-Law 3/2015, known as “Investment Compact”, and the Budget Law for 
2017  (Law  232/2016)),  have  improved  initial  legislation  as  pertains  to  benefits  for 
innovative start-ups.  

Regions are often involved in designing and executing support the entrepreneurs at the 
local  level.  The  overall Italian  system  to support entrepreneurs  is  lacking  a coordinated 
and national approach and this results in difference across the regions. However, recent 
efforts  are  made  to  encourage  women  and  youth  entrepreneurship.  Specific  national 
targets based on the European Union’s 2020 Strategy include:  

−  An employment rate of 67%-69% for 20 - 64-year-olds by 2020; 

−  At least 2.2 million fewer people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion.  

Specifically,  regarding  inclusive  entrepreneurship,  there  is  a  National  Plan  of  the  Youth 
Employment Initiative (Programma Operativo Nazionale “Iniziativa Occupazione Giovani”, 
namely PON IOG) which aims seeks to help 3.5% of participants become self-employed 
shortly after completing the programme. The funding comes from “SELFIEmployment” and 
provides  microcredits  in  order  to  support  business  creation.  Another  programme  is  the 
Crescere  imprenditori  training  initiative,  which  had  specific  resources  to  support  youth 
entrepreneurship for youth ages 19-2927.  

Other initiatives to support youth entrepreneurship include:  

− 

the national network of one-stop shops (Sportelli per l’imprenditoria giovanile) for 
youth entrepreneurship.  

Piano Nazionale della Garanzia Giovani (National Plan of the Youth Guarantee) launched in 
2014Specifically targeting women entrepreneurship in the policy framework was reinforced 
in  2003  through  the  Comitati  per  la  promozione  dell'imprenditorialità  femminile 

26 More details on the policy instruments included in the Start-up Act are provided at 
https://www.mise.gov.it/images/stories/documenti/Executive-Summary-of-Italy-s-Startup-Act-new-format-
23_02_2017.pdf 

27 The programme’s budget for supporting young entrepreneurship amounts to EUR 1.295 million until 2020. 

28 

 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

(Committees  for  the  promotion  of  female  entrepreneurship).  These  committees  are 
established by the Ministry for Economic Development and the Union of the Chambers of 
Commerce and aim to provide local support specifically target women entrepreneurship.  

Overall approach to support services  

Support services are provided by a number of key actors in Italy including:  

−  Government  institutions  (Ministry  of  Labour  and  Social  Policies;  Ministry  of 

Education, Research and Innovation; Ministry of Economic Development); 

− 

Invitalia  (National  Agency  fostering  investments  and  enterprise  development): 
responsible  for  managing  national  policy  initiatives  related  to  entrepreneurship, 
mostly geared towards disadvantaged groups;  

−  Unioncamere,  association  of  Chambers  of  Commerce,  Industry,  Handicraft  and 
Agriculture: Chambers of commerce has a key role as the business register,  but 
also offer a wide range of services including market, training, internationalisation, 
trade relations, etc. Start-ups receive additional support at no cost through e.g. 
the new enterprise service;  

−  Confindustria:  Italian  Industry  Association.  National  programmes  to  support 
entrepreneurs  are  offered,  including  additional  support  to  youth  (through 
competitions and contests).  

A selection of examples of national calls and initiatives include:  

•   Incentives for product, process and organisational innovation in SMEs28: This 
initiative  supports  micro  enterprises  and  SMEs  (manufacturing,  construction  and 
business  services)  that  intend  to  develop  business  and  market  innovations.  This 
initiative aims to: 

−  Support  the  development  of  innovation  and  innovation  capacity,  encouraging 
activities that promote product innovation, process and organisational innovation; 

−  Support initiatives that concern the development of measures designed to promote 
firms'  innovation,  increasing  knowledge  necessary  to  product,  process  and 
organisational  innovation  also  through  the  exchange  of  expertise  with  large 
companies and research organisations. 

•   New  zero-interest  companies29:  With  this  measurement  the  Italian  government 
tries to support young people between the age of 18 and 35 or women of all ages in 
the creation of their own micro or small business. It provides zero interest rate financing 
for business projects with a cost of up to € 1.5 million and can cover up to 75% of the 
total eligible costs. For the remaining 25%, co-financing by the company is required, 
either  through  own  resources  or  through  bank  financing.  Business  projects  that  can 
receive funds need to deal with the production of goods in the sectors of industry, crafts 
and  processing  of  agricultural  products,  the  provision  of  services  to  businesses  and 
individuals, trade in goods and services or tourism. 

28 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/regional-innovation-monitor/support-measure/incentives-
product-process-and-organisational-innovation-smes 

29 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/regional-innovation-monitor/support-measure/centro-i/new-
zero-interest-companies 

29 

 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

•   Smart&Start Italy30: This is an Italian measurement that supports the creation and 
growth of innovative start-ups. With a total budget of around 200 million euro, projects 
costing up to 1.5 million euro will be funded. In order to receive the fund, the start-up 
must have a strong technological dimension, operate in the digital economy, enhance 
search results or be a spin-off from research. 

Key policies  

The Italian government also puts forward specific measures to support entrepreneurship 
to achieve outlined objectives:  

•  

Industry 4.0  

The area of Industry 4.0 has received specific attention and is thus outlined as a key policy 
at Italian level. There exists a National Plan “Industria 4.0” (launched in September 2016) 
which has been put forward by the Minister of Economic Development and by the President 
of  the  Council  of  Ministers.  The  objective  of  the  plan  is  to  promote  digitalisation  and 
strengthen the competitiveness of the Italian industry. It includes specific policies that aim 
to attract investments, while focussing on the notion of innovation. A central element of 
the Plan is to develop and expand incentives to invest in innovative start-ups and SMEs. 
For  example,  incentives  include  a  personal  income  tax  deduction  or  a  deduction  from 
corporate taxable income for the investor (since 2017).  

4.2  Regional development policy 

4.2.1  Regional policy objectives 

The Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) of the Lombardy region focuses on the identification 
of resources, skills and innovative potential through the selection of priorities in terms of 
production sectors and technological fields. They will concentrate their investments with 
this integrated approach into seven Specialisation Areas. These areas cover the economic 
and  scientific  actors  that  are  located  in  the  region  and  contribute  to  improve  their 
excellence in an area. The Specialisation Areas for Lombardy are: 

−  Aerospace; 

−  Agri-food; 

−  Eco-industry; 

−  Creative and cultural industries; 

−  Health industry; 

−  Advanced manufacturing; 

−  Sustainable mobility. 

In  terms  of  policy  objectives  for  the  programming  period  2014-2020,  Lombardy  region 
focuses its efforts on the following key aspects: 

•  

“Enhancing  synergistic  interaction  and  the  inter-sectoral  cooperation  between 
entrepreneurial  and  research  actors  (districts,  clusters,  networks,  research  centres) 

30 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/regional-innovation-monitor/support-measure/centro-
i/smartstart-italy 

30 

 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

and  across  industries,  enabling  these  relations  to  evolve  according  to  market 
expectations; 

•   Enhancing  the  ‘demand  pull’  approach  to  intercept  the  new  needs  of  society  and  to 

steer market research (active aging, specialised healthcare…); 

•   Fostering the enabling conditions to support innovation (eco and social innovation); 

•   Reinforcing the participation on international markets and developing at the same time 

the capacity to attract knowledge and investments; 

•   Designing integrated action in the framework of smart cities, aimed also at increasing 
the attractiveness of the Region by promoting its territorial, environmental and cultural 
assets” (DG GROW, 2019). 

At  the  time  of  finalising  the  report,  Lombardy  region  is  currently  proceeding  with  the 
designing phase of Smart Specialisation Strategy and aligning all policy areas of the region 
to this overarching strategy. 

4.2.2  Regional policies supporting entrepreneurs and scale-ups 

Lombardy  region  supports  entrepreneurs,  start-ups  and  skill  development  through  a 
number  of  measures  and  financial  support.  The  following  examples  of  regional  support 
programmes are outlined: 

•   The third edition of FABER: It supports micro and small manufacturing, construction 
and artisan businesses for making productive investments. The fund is now closed due 
to exhaustion of the funds. Within 2 hours 438 companies applied. There was a total of 
1,265 applications for 31.2 million euros (Regional public system). 

•   AL VIA31: The initiative aimed at supporting new investments by SMEs in order to re-
launch the production system and facilitate the phase out of the socio-economic crisis 
through the granting of a medium-long term loan, assisted by a guarantee under the 
VIA  Guarantee  Fund  and  combined  with  a  non-repayable  capital  contribution.  It 
consists  of  two  lines:  the  Business  Development  Line  and  the  Production  Areas 
Relaunch  Line.  669  applications  were  submitted  for  407.1  million  euro.  364  of  the 
applications were positive resolutions for 227.3 million euro (advance and balance). 

Furthermore, the region Lombardy has implemented several direct measures that support 
growing businesses. The main focus of the measures is on emerging businesses and are 
divided into three categories: competitiveness improving measures, enhancing innovation 
and internationalisation support. The table below indicates all the active measures that are 
implemented in Lombardy. As shown, many of the measures focus on the initial growth 
stage with competitiveness measures in yellow, innovation enhancing measures in green 
and internationalisation in purple.  

31 http://www.finlombarda.it/finanziamentieservizi/alvia  

31 

 
 
 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Table 5: Entrepreneurship – Direct measures supporting businesses in Lombardy 

Start - up 

Incubation / Seed 
phase 

Early Stage 
Phase 

Initial Growth 

Late Stage 
Phase 

Growth 

Growth/Mature  Decline/ Renewal 

Sustainable Growth 

Direct incentives and 

micro-financing of new 

enterprises (START- 

UP) 

Development of risk capital market in pre-seed, 

seed and early stage phases (SIDE CAR) 

Financing industrial research, experimental development and 

innovation by single SMEs, groups of companies and research 

Support to innovation projects, industrial exploitation of R&D results, implementation of ICT 
technologies and innovative entrepreneurial models 

Support for purchase of technology, strategic and organisational innovation services (VOUCHER) 

Support of complex R&D projects 

Precommercial Public Procurement and 
Innovation Procurement 

Support of innovation of process, product and organisation and 

exploitation of results 

Support of investments in tangible and intangible assets together and 

reorganisation/restructure processes 

Internationalisation support (networks, incentives for acquisition of 

services) 

Support to competitiveness of companies in cultural, touristic and 

creative sectors (reinforcement, modernisation, networks creation) 

Direct incentives and 

micro-financing of new 

enterprises (RE-START) 

Network for Support of 

Companies in Difficulties 

(RAID) 

Incentives for acquisition of specialistic internationalisation services (TEM) 

Enterprise Europe Network 

Source: Regione Lombardia EER Award 2016 Application.  

4.2.3  Regional entrepreneurship policy measures fostering cross-border linkages 

Lombardy as a region is very active in exploring the possibilities and potential for cross-
border collaboration. The region has established a voucher for the internationalisation 

32 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

of the SMEs32. This was a measure in 2017 that offered a non-refundable grant to SMEs 
in the form of vouchers. The vouchers could be used to explore cross-border markets by 
hiring  a  temporary  export  manager  who  is  skilled  in  exploring  foreign  markets  and 
engaging relations abroad.   

The region is active in the following relevant Interreg activities: 

−  Alpine Space33  

− 

Italy - Switzerland34 

−  TITTAN project (Interreg Europe)35 

−  S3Chem project (Interreg Europe)36 

−  S34Growth project (Interreg Europe)37 

In addition, in terms of cross-regional platforms and partnerships, Lombardy is active in 
both  the  Thematic  Smart  Specialisation  Platform  (TSSP)  partnerships,  as  well  as  the 
Vanguard Initiative. The participation of the region in those partnerships is as follows:  

Ongoing TSSP participation:  

− 

Industrial  Modernisation:  Advanced  manufacturing  for  energy  applications  (PR), 
Bioeconomy (LR), Chemicals (LR), Efficient and Sustainable Manufacturing (LR), 
High Performance Production through 3D-Printing (PR), Medical Technology (LR), 
Smart Regional Investments in Textile Innovation (PR) 

−  Energy: Marine Renewable Energy (PR) 

−  Agri food: Smart sensors 4 agri-food (PR) 

Ongoing Vanguard Initiative participation:  

−  Bioeconomy  

−  Efficient and Sustainable Manufacturing (ESM)  

−  High Performance Production through 3D-Printing  

−  Advanced Manufacturing for Energy Related Applications in Harsh Environments 

(ADMA Energy) 

4.2.4  Regional governance arrangements  

Similar to many other EU Member States, Italy has evolved over the past decades from a 
unitary  to  a  ‘regionalised’  country.  Especially  during  the  1990s,  regional  functions, 
responsibilities  and  competencies  were  broadened,  via  the  so-called  ‘Bassanini  Law’ 
(1997). In addition, constitutional reforms in 1999 and 2001 further modified the division 
of legislative competences between the State and the Regions, by distinguishing between 

32 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/regional-innovation-monitor/support-measure/centro-
i/voucher-internationalisation-smes  

33 https://www.alpine-space.eu/  

34 http://interreg-italiasvizzera.eu/  

35 https://www.interregeurope.eu/tittan/  

36 https://www.interregeurope.eu/s3chem/   

37 https://www.interregeurope.eu/s34growth/  

33 

 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

exclusive  competencies  of 
the  State,  concurrent  competencies,  and  exclusive 
competencies  of  the  Regions.  Since  then,  competencies  related  to  entrepreneurship, 
education,  research  and  innovation  are  largely  in  hands  of  the  regions  as  ‘concurrent 
competencies’, meaning that the central government still applies a principle of subsidiarity 
to  complement  or  reinforce  the  action  of  the  regions  where  needed.  Fiscal  incentives 
remain an exclusive competency of the central state. Apart from these fiscal incentives, 
the region does have large competencies to initiate specific measures for innovation and 
entrepreneurship, while some of these measures can be reinforced or complemented by 
national initiatives (e.g. regarding research and technology infrastructures).  

4.2.5  Assessment of the regional policies for entrepreneurship  

both 

covering 

technology-driven 

The  region  of  Lombardy  does  have  a  large  and  well-developed  set  of  policies  towards 
entrepreneurship, 
technology-neutral 
entrepreneurship, finance support, skills development etc. Some substantial gaps remain 
however, where public intervention should be increased or improved such as the financing 
of  scale  ups  beyond  5  million  EUR  (including,  on  top  of  grants,  a  facilitated  access  to 
lending, (quasi-)equity and bank guarantees), the configuration of IPR for university-based 
entrepreneurship  and  the  participation  of  key  end-users  to  regional  testbeds  and 
technology deployment initiatives (to increase visibility of domestic innovations for global 
players and value chains).  

and 

34 

 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

5  REGIONAL SWOT AND CONLCUSIONS 

5.1  Maturity of the regional ecosystem 

Regional ecosystems can be categorised into the following stages:  

•   Nascent are systems where there are only few actors with limited interaction and hardly 

any start-ups 

•   Evolving are systems with some annual birth of start-ups, several scale up and at least 

one major success story and access to Business Angels and VC 

•   Mature are the systems with a systematic renewal of new companies, scale ups and 

M&As, IPOs and having a brand name as EE 

•   Sustainable  are  ecosystems  that  attract  successful  promising  start-ups  or  scaleups 

from elsewhere. 

Lombardy can be placed along the following matrix: 

Table 6: Maturity of the ecosystem 

Stage of EE 

Nascent 

Evolving 

Mature 

Sustainable 

Does the 
system rely 
more on: 

Market-forces 

Policy 
interventions 

X 

X 

The Lombardy regional ecosystem (as depicted in Error! Reference source not found.) 
can be considered as ‘mature’. Lombardy is a large, urban and densely populated region 
with  a  strong  industrial  tradition  and  structure.  The  urban  nuclei  in  the  region  have 
contributed to develop the tertiary economy over the past decades, complementing and 
diversifying the regional economy. The region has all major ingredients of a very advanced 
ecosystem:  large  global  companies,  a  strong  research  sector,  highly  developed  and 
internationalised  clusters  and  industry  associations  as  well  as  a  large  community  of 
competitive  SMEs.  But  some  elements  may  require  specific  attention.  First  of  all,  more 
attention should be paid to the detailed understanding of (positioning and composition of) 
value  chains  in  Lombardy,  and  their  interrelationships  with  local  SMEs,  as  well  as  to 
fostering the linkages between large companies and domestic SMEs. Second, the access 
to capital for innovative activities and companies should be reinforced, both at public and 
private sides of the equation. Third, the sub-optimal provision of adequate skills remains 
an  issue  to  allow  for  an  effective  transition  to  modern  and  digitised  industry  and  new 
business models. Over the past 5 years, the region has put in place a large and impressive 
set of new measures to cope with most of these weaknesses, and it has been increasingly 
involved in international cooperation networks. It is now important to keep the momentum 
and  to  sustain  these  efforts,  as  well  as  to  implement  a  solid  monitoring  and  impact 
assessment system.  

35 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Figure 2: The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Lombardy (non-exhaustive) 

Source: IDEA Consult 

5.2  Updated regional SWOT as basis for inter-regional collaborations  

The following outlines the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats 
that  can  serve  as  a  basis  for  the  horizontal  and  thematic  collaboration  opportunities 
outlined in this project.  

36 

 
 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Table 7 Updated SWOT analysis for the Lombardy entrepreneurial ecosystem 

Strength 

Weakness 

- Competitive economic output 

- Networks with several specialists of 
productive chains 

- Lombardy boasts around 20% of all Italian 
innovative start-ups 

- Traditional quality and local supply chains 

- Lighthouse projects 

- Significantly competitive in capturing EU 
funding due to high engagement and 
collaboration rate between companies and 
research sector  

- Multi-localised industry internationalisation 

- High quality of the higher education and 
research system 

- ‘Professor privilege’ 

- Articulated presence of business 
representative and support organisations 

- Vibrant population with relevant presence 
of immigrants 

- Financial capital of Italy with a high density 
of financial intermediaries 

- Extended network of Mutual Guarantee 
Schemes 

- SME collaboration 

- Integration of technologies solutions 

- One third of all Italian early stage 
investments is placed in Lombardy 

- Entrepreneurial propensity 

- Good performance in terms of prompt 
payment by public administration 

- Competitive arena mainly at local/regional 
level 

- Programmes / initiatives to support start-
ups and scale-ups not sufficiently apparent 

- Few meeting points between demand and 
offer of innovation 

- Neglected adult education 

- Limited cross-fertilisation of ideas between 
education and industry 

- Low rate of international 
students/professors 

- Universities hamper IPR (licencing) and 
tech transfer  

- Challenges with medical committee for 
clinical trials 

- Fragmented assistance 

- Brain drain: skilled Italian workers and even 
students leaving 

- Salaries / career perspectives low 

- Low degree of capitalisation of SMEs 

- Persistent loan culture 

- Under-developed and fragmented risk 
capital market 

- SMEs inability to craft and steer own value 
chains 

- Less flexibility in investment choices 

- Absence of investment readiness 
programmes 

- Low scientific knowledge of investors 

- Risk aversity 

- Slow payment of grants and funding 

- Lack of systemic evaluation of programmes 
to support enterprises’ development 

Opportunity 

Threat 

- Regional diversity and basis for growth 

- Sudden acceleration of the technologies 

37 

 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

Weakness 

- Global competition 

- Political commitment and stability 

- For MedTech companies: New EU 
Regulation in Medical Device Regulation and 
Medical Device Directive 

- Spinoffs/spinouts are not encouraged by 
central administration of CNR 

- Outdated structures and skills in SMEs 

- Lack of succession planning, professional 
education and continuing professional 
development (CPD) in SMEs 

- Funding and investment 

- Difficult balance between efficiency and 
territorial proximity of financial institutions 

- Culture (risk averse)  

- Loss of talent 

Strength 

- Educational programmes targeting industry 
needs  

- Training and education on entrepreneurship 
at higher education institutes 

- Untapped potential of female/young 
entrepreneurship 

- Mobilisation of large companies/players 
(e.g. through AFIL strategic communities) 

- Immigrant entrepreneurship 

- Competitiveness in innovation 

- Costs for renting spaces relatively low 

- Cheap wages in Italy 

- Bring stakeholders together to collaborate 
for innovation 

- Higher education and research spinouts 

- New and alternative IP collaboration models 
in favour of start-ups 

- Existence of well-established and renowned 
clusters 

- lengthening of the value chains (especially 
for food manufacturing) in the region 

- Targeted support for Gazelles 

- Increased support for start-ups 

- Growing awareness in SMEs of the 
importance to invest in education and 
training 

- DIH to support digitalisation of industries 
and adoption of new technologies 

Source: IDEA Consult 

38 

 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

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programmalijn Topclusters van het Economisch Programma Brabant 2020. Noord-
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Dormans, H. (2018). Eindrapportage Valorisatieprogramma OL+ 2013-2018.  

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Vermeulen, E. (2018). Durfkapitaal in “Startups” en “Scale-ups”. “Startup Ecosysteem” 

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Crunchbase. (2019). Start-up and Scale-up data.  

Scholtes, P. (2019). Rabobank steekt een miljard in Brainport. ED. 

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Van den Broek, J., Deuten, J., & Jonkers, K. (2018). RIO Country report 2017 The 

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Provincie Zeeland, Provincie Noord-Brabant, Provincie Limburg. (2013). RIS3 Zuid .  

European Commission. (2017). 2017 SBA Fact Sheet Netherlands.  

Provincie Noord-Brabant. (2012). Economisch Programma Brabant 2020.  

Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship. (2015). Snelgroeiende bedrijven in Noord-Brabant.  

Stichting Brabant Startup Alliance. (2018). Braventure, voortgangsverslag 2018. Noord-

Brabant. 

Brainport. (n.d.). Brainport for startups, Accelerated start and growth.  

Brightmove. (2018). Kennisvalorisatie in Zuidoost-Brabant.  

OPZuid. (2014). Operationeel Programma Zuid-Nederland 2014-2020.  

(n.d.). Economische ontwikkeling als opgave in Noord-Brabant - de rol van 

ecosysteemontwikkeling -.  

Knowmak. (2019, July). Patent data. Retrieved from Knowmak database: 

https://www.knowmak.eu/dashboard 

Eurostat. (2019). Start-up and Scale-up data.  

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Provincie Noord Brabant. (2019). Campussen en werklocaties. Retrieved from Brabant.nl: 

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Muffatto, M., Garengo, P., Iacobucci, D., Micozzi, A., Sheriff, M., & Saeed, S. (2014). 

Global Italian Entrepreneurship Monitor 2014.  

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Lombardy Region - DG for Universities, Research and Open Innovation. (2017). EER 
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40 

 
 
 
 
European Entrepreneurial Regions - regional ecosystem mapping: Region of Lombardy 

APPENDIX A : IN-DEPTH MAPPING INTERVIEWS 

Table 8: List of interviewees North Brabant 

First name 

Last name  Organization 

Interview date 

Luca 

Ravagnan 

Wise Srl 

19/07/2019 

Enrico 

Malfa 

Tenova Spa – 
Techint Group 
company 

19/07/2019 

Interview 
type 

Date study 
visit 

Face to 
face 

Face to 
face 

18-
19/07/2019, 
Milan 

Monica  

Necchi 

CNAO Foundation 

19/09/2019 

Phone 

Silvia 

Meneghello 

Alessandra 

Stella 

Roberta 

Diego 

Curiazzi 

Andreis 

Alessandro 

Marini 

CNR – IBBA 
Laboratories 

18/07/2019 

AFIL Cluser 

18/07/2019 

Silvia 

Alina 

Corbetta 

Finlombarda SpA 

18-19/07/2019 

Candu 

Vincenzina 

Cristofaro 

Regione Lombardia  26/06/2019,  18-

19/07/2019, 

17/10/2019 

Face to 
face 

Face to 
face 

Face to 
face 

Phone and 
face to 
face 

41 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Getting in touch with the EU 

In person 

All over the European Union there are hundreds of Europe Direct information centres. You 
can  find  the  address  of  the  centre  nearest  you  at:  https://europa.eu/european-
union/contact_en  

On the phone or by email 

Europe Direct is a service that answers your questions about the European Union. You can 
contact this service: 

– by freephone: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (certain operators may charge for these calls), 

– at the following standard number: +32 22999696 or  

– by email via: https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en  

Finding information about the EU 

Online 

Information about the European Union in all the official languages of the EU is available on 
the Europa website at: https://europa.eu/european-union/index_en   

EU publications 

can 

download 

at: 
You 
https://publications.europa.eu/en/publications  .  Multiple  copies  of  free  publications  may 
be  obtained  by  contacting  Europe  Direct  or  your  local  information  centre  (see 
https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en ). 

publications 

priced 

order 

free 

and 

EU 

or 

EU law and related documents 

For access to legal information from the EU, including all EU law since 1952 in all the official 
language versions, go to EUR-Lex at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu  

Open data from the EU 

The  EU  Open  Data  Portal  (http://data.europa.eu/euodp/en)  provides  access  to  datasets 
from the EU. Data can be downloaded and reused for free, for both commercial and non-
commercial purposes. 

 
 
 
 
 
E
A
-
0
2
-
2
0
-
3
4
7
-
E
N
-
N

doi: 10.2826/786300