Oper.space: the University of Bologna's Innovation Factory has been created

The Oper.Space website is now online. It’s the University of Bologna's Innovation Factory, a space created to create opportunities for exchange and transformation, with the aim of contributing to the development of the innovation ecosystem within the university context and in collaboration with local stakeholders. This is where initiatives with a strong social and cultural impact and regional resonance come to life: Open Innovation programmes and initiatives, innovation projects for the benefit of the student and research community, training proposals and prototyping services.

The name 'Oper' encapsulates Open Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Research. These three concepts are represented by the various areas of expertise of the University of Bologna including: Almacube (University incubator and innovation hub), Almalabor (space in the University's Innovation Area, equipped with co-working spaces and a 'makerspace' prototyping laboratory) and BeHold (a company that manages the University's investments in accredited spin-offs) and Oper.Lab (Open Innovation observatory of the Department of Business Sciences and community of external researchers and professionals).

Oper.Space's role is to bring together universities, companies and institutions to tackle society's complex problems, through innovation pathways that generate solutions centred on people's real needs. Oper.Space also represents the desire to consolidate a culture of creative development of ideas, raising awareness in the academic community and beyond, of the applications and consequences in the context of innovation.

Oper.space initiates and develops Open Innovation initiatives through collaboration between students, businesses, public organisations, service sector organisations, start-ups and spin-offs and other universities and research centres, both nationally and internationally. These programmes and opportunities are the result of the research, analysis and design of effective Open Innovation models proposed by Oper.Lab, an observatory of the Department of Business Sciences of the University of Bologna and are developed and implemented in close collaboration with Almacube, the incubator of the University of Bologna and Confindustria Emilia Area Centro.

The University, with a view to internationalisation and the contamination of knowledge, has joined the network of design factories and has become a member of the Design Factory Global Network (DFGN), a network of Innovation Hubs hosted by universities and research centres across all five continents.

Oper.Space's activities are promoted and enhanced by the University of Bologna's Open Innovation Initiatives Steering Committee, whose chair is the Rector's Delegate for Relations with Businesses and Industrial Research, Prof. Claudio Melchiorri.