A special project to instill innovation across all SACMI business units saw the ‘Open Innovation’ concept investigated by six students, selected by Almacube and put to the test by SACMI's corporate challenges.
SACMI recently concluded its participation in the OPER. CBI - Challenge Based Innovation project organized by Almacube, the innovation incubator/hub of the University of Bologna and Confindustria Emilia Area Centro. This gave SACMI a great opportunity to gain fresh, in-the-field ‘open innovation’ experience by involving six undergraduates with multidisciplinary backgrounds: an engineer, a philosopher, a designer, an expert in business administration and an expert in international relations.
Alongside them, SACMI embarked on a journey towards collaborative, interdisciplinary innovation. The goal? To find shared solutions to problems that affect the company businesses by taking an ‘open innovation’ approach that draws on different yet interfacing skills and perspectives.
“The interdisciplinary approach gave the project real added value. We asked ourselves how we could make the most of networking to encourage transversal connections and opportunities. By making ‘knowledge sharing’ the focus of the project, we sought out an enabling technology that might be applicable to various SACMI businesses, such as Tiles, Advanced Materials, Rigid Packaging. It was great to see students pitting their skills against business problems. At SACMI, we always take pride and pleasure in bringing young, brilliant minds closer to the world of industry and innovation”, explains Fiorenzo Parrinello, SACMI Corporate Innovation Director
Launched in October, the project lasted four months, ending in February. Further opportunities provided by OPER.CBI included a tour of the Geneva-based CERN facility, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. This gave the students a great opportunity to meet scientists, attend lessons, engage in co-design and explore AI tools, experiences they shared with the SACMI staff involved in the project.
Taking part in this scheme was highly rewarding for SACMI, which remains committed to promoting innovation through teamwork with leading national and international academic and research institutions.