\ Home \ Big Science Business Forum 2024 to be held in Trieste: leading research organisations and industry to come together at international event

The next edition of the international Big Science Business Forum (BSBF) will be held in Trieste in the autumn of 2024. The focus of the event is technological innovation, a crossroads between research and industry, bringing together Europe’s major research infrastructures.

Following in the footsteps of Copenhagen in 2018 and Granada in 2022, Trieste will be the city of the Big Science Common Market in 2024. Important international players involved in designing and building equipment using latest-generation technologies will be able to meet with technologists, researchers and managers of large research organisations. The Forum will be held at Trieste’s Porto Vecchio conference centre. Attendees will meet to discuss cutting-edge tech issues and needs in Big Science, including in light of the major investments in research infrastructure through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).

Trieste’s winning bid had the full backing of local authorities in the form of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and is the result of the combined efforts of Area Science Park, ILO Network Italia – the Industrial Liaison Officers for Italy at the major international Big Science organisations (CNR, ENEA, INAF and INFN) – and PromoTurismoFVG.

The announcement and subsequent handover took place today in Granada at the closing ceremony for the 2022 edition, which was attended by over 1,100 participants and 190 exhibitors. Picking up the baton for Trieste was Friuli Venezia Giulia’s Councillor for Labour, Training, Education, Research, University and Family, Alessia Rosolen, who commented: “This is an important achievement for Friuli Venezia Giulia, and the city of Trieste, which will take centre stage for another prominent international event. Finding and facilitating the crossover between development goals in industry and the objectives of large research organisations is a way of turbocharging innovation and economic development.”

Friuli Venezia Giulia’s candidate project chosen from a shortlist of proposals from different European countries.

“The project’s success represents the success of Trieste as ‘the city of Science,’ with its interconnected network of scientific institutions, universities, and international research bodies and organisations. The real driving force behind research and innovation in a pivotal, central and eastern European region like Friuli Venezia Giulia is the collaborative network created among these institutions,” said Caterina Petrillo, President of Area Science Park, following the announcement. She added: “The Region has always been attentive to promoting everything the local area has to offer and was fully behind the candidacy, submitted thanks to the collaboration and expertise of institutions including Sincrotrone Elettra Trieste, home to the international headquarters of the CERIC-ERIC European infrastructure, and the Free Electron Laser FERMI, at the cutting edge of European research. And this is just the beginning. We will be working together with other scientific institutions in the area to organise the event and we hope that it will provide an opportunity for research and industry to meet and discuss key issues on an international scale.”

Research infrastructure is a particularly strategic sector for Italy, which is involved in numerous large international research infrastructures and often contributes in-kind by building and installing technologically advanced equipment and services. This type of exchange has an important positive impact on national industry and the companies in the supply chain invited to submit a tender, who not only benefit from a direct return, but also have the chance to qualify as listed suppliers for the international research infrastructure market.

“We also mustn’t forget that, during the building phase, research infrastructure is first and foremost a form of ‘construction site’ for implementing innovative technological ideas as regards engineering, design, the choice of materials and energy sustainability,” said President Petrillo. “The recent major investments in infrastructure as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan – which implies a commitment to keeping the facilities operational for at least ten years – make having a network in place that effectively links the needs of infrastructure to the relevant suppliers even more pressing. BSBF will tackle these issues, providing an effective platform for research infrastructures and businesses to meet and exchange ideas in Trieste.”