In Trentino you bet on the ideas of young people – Aleteia

The project is called “Techpeaks,” which could be translated as “technological heights,” virtuous path to take to boldly go where no one has arrived so far. And ‘the challenge of “Trento Rise,” the pole of innovation created by Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento and the Department of Engineering of the University of Trento. The project supports young entrepreneurs who have not the company, but they have ideas. It helps them Trentino. Here’s how the interview with Paolo Traverso , director of Trento Rise. How did the idea for this project?

Traverso: In around there are a lot of innovative ideas among the young, but very little money and few institutions that support them. We have decided to change the air and help talents. You could call it the “people accelerator”, accelerator people. We carry in Trento deserving young people from all over the world and with experts in the startup, which play a role of mentors, we help them turn ideas into business.

From where?

Traverso: From around the world, but particularly in Asia and Europe and the United States. At the first call for proposals last year took part in 619., We selected 63 and after six months in Trentino were born 18 startups who are already receiving private funding, a sign that work well on them and you can invest. The novelty is that this is not a “business accelerator”, but an “accelerator of people” who have ideas. We help them make the team and refine ideas that create jobs in a fair environment.

It basically works as a school?

Traverso: Yes a very practical school. In the second call on 650 participants we selected 47. The “teachers” are experts from around the world. If good ideas mature, we put 25 thousand euro at the beginning and then go to seek private funds. If an individual invests, then also we invest public funds with the obligation of the company that comes to stay for a certain period of time in the Trentino region to create jobs here.

Trentino as a “hub” of the advanced search?

Traverso: We have always known the world over for our university and the Kessler Foundation. Now everything is even more refined and Trentino enters the world map of innovation. So young people can use the technologies that already exist in Trentino and our centers can take advantage of additional skills.

What projects have been initiated?

Traverso : Twenty-one startup that concern primarily the computer. One of these, for example, applies the game theory to evaluate the profiles of employees in large companies. Another deals with computer science applied to tourism.

A model that can be exported?

Traverso: We are very keen. We have contacts with Emilia and Lombardy, Calabria but also by the Italian Post Office, which has invested here in a research center for computer security. In Trentino there is an enlightened policy, and we hope that other regions take example. With the ‘European Institute of’ innovation for the technology of which we are part, we try to replicate the project not only in Italy but also in Europe, Berlin and Paris, to insert the startup of an international circuit, which serves to expand the market also to combat youth unemployment.