With the completion of the agreements made following the award of the European tender, launched by the ICE Agency on behalf of the MAECI, Fondazione Brodolini and Entopan Innovation have formally been appointed to start and manage the activities and services of the Italian Culture and Innovation Center in San Francisco.The initiative was born on the impulse of the Presidency of the Italian Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, with the aim of building an interface between the world of Italian innovation and the innovative ecosystem of Silicon Valley.

The space intends to be a platform of choice for incoming and outgoing innovation flows between the entire Italian innovation ecosystem and the wide and varied innovative ecosystem that revolves around San Francisco. Geographically distant territories that will benefit from a mutual contamination between the extraordinary technological and financial capabilities of California and the Italian innovative ecosystem with its ideas and talents.

This ambitious and strategic project, which is part of the initiatives for the promotion of Made in Italy and the attraction of investments, aims to make the Center an accelerator for the development of both public and private national realities: investment funds, startups and corporates, research centers and univers local authorities (regions, metropolitan cities, agencies), with a view to supporting their growth and internationalization to improve the competitiveness of the country system and to strengthen the synergy between the innovative ecosystem of Italy and Silicon Valley.

Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Entopan Innovation, entrusted with the project for the next four years, will officially start the project activities on October 20, within the spaces of the Innovat center, at 710 Sansome Street in San Francisco. The Center will promote initiatives, events, acceleration and reception paths for startups and SMEs as well as open innovation programs for companies and public bodies, through constant interaction with the Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies (ICE) and with the collaboration of the Consulate of Italy in San Francisco, the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco and the Directorate General for the Promotion of the Country System of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The San Francisco Culture and Innovation Center was created to serve Italian innovation actors, ensuring a stable presence in one of the most important high-tech industrial areas in the world. This initiative will allow us to open a dialogue with the protagonists of the San Francisco ecosystem that has in its DNA a high propensity to business risk, a strong aptitude for the development of new skills and the ability to attract the best human capital and where we find some of the most prestigious universities in the world. A highly receptive environment where Italian companies will be able to bring their ideas and projects, stimulating a stable flow of innovation between Italy and the United States, and draw on a precious pool of skills and an investment system sensitive to innovative contexts.

The management of the San Francisco Center for Culture and Innovation and the provision of services, organized by the partnership between the Giacomo Brodolini Foundation and Entopan Innovation, will guarantee the project know-how, authority, quality and international standing. The Giacomo Brodolini Foundation, in fact, has been engaged in activities with a high social impact for over 50 years and boasts consolidated experience in the design and management of some of the main innovation centers in Italy (among the best known: Open Incet in Turin, FabriQ Milan, Milan Luiss Hub, Open Laboratories of Emilia-Romagna).

Entopan Innovation is the operational heart of the Harmonic Innovation Group, committed to the creation of a global network of "places of the future", in a logic of a real "generative ecosystem" in which the major industrial players, the main research centers, the most relevant investors, the most promising start-ups, stakeholders institutional and social and government agencies can share a harmonious space for dialogue, planning, research and development to bring out solutions (technological, environmental, social, cultural, strategic and political) useful for safeguarding the planet and building a better world.

In addition, the Giacomo Brodolini Foundation and Entopan Innovation, will use for the management of the Center and its activities the partnerships already started with protagonists of innovation at national and international level, including Web Genesys, one of the main Italian system integrators, and Plug & Play, one of the most important Open Innovation platforms, providing the Italian system with the opportunity to learn about and interact with one of the most important innovation ecosystems in the world.