Eni and Politecnico di Milano have signed a new framework agreement on March 15 during an online event attended by the Minister of University and Research Maria Cristina Messa, the President of Lombardia Region Attilio Fontana, the Rector of the Politecnico Ferruccio Resta, the President of Eni Lucia Calvosa and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi.

The collaboration between Eni and the Politecnico di Milano, which began in 2008, has received research investments for about 50 million euros, and led to innovative solutions in many fields including circular economy, carbon neutrality, and monitoring systems used in asset integrity management. The new framework agreement aims to strengthen the key partnership between Eni and the Politecnico di Milano and further optimize its strategic approach for sustainable development by identifying and deploying new technologies.

The strategic element of this new framework agreement, of the duration of five years and extendable to seven, is the development of the first joint center for the acceleration and application of technologies for energy transition and carbon neutrality. The joint center will host specific projects, selected with technology foresight initiatives and with analysis focusing on the acceleration of technologies development paths and their deployment. The people working on the projects will be researchers, technologists and experts on time-to-market acceleration of research products of both parties that will operate together in an environment that facilitates the creation of new ideas and their commercialization.

The joint center is part of the Innovation District project that Politecnico di Milano is developing in its Milan hub of Bovisa, and that has already received an important investment from Lombardia Region in 2019.

“We have renewed an agreement of great strategic relevance that strengthens and accelerates our transition towards an ever more sustainable energy,” Claudio Descalzi, Eni’s CEO, said. “Ours is an ambitious and tangible path, on which we already stepped with important milestones, but we cannot complete it with our commitment alone: we need to create a system within our country in order to promote the culture of circularity and Carbon Neutrality, while pooling investment opportunities and know-how. Today’s agreement, thanks to the creation of the Joint Innovation and Research Centre, lays the foundation for this to happen.”