Oct. 2 – Brussels, the heart of the European Union, is hosting a conference on technology at the European Parliament, the 5th “European Innovation Summit,” an event dedicated to issues of research and innovation in Europe. Organized by the Platform K4I, knowledge for innovation, the event kicked off Wednesday and will close its doors today. Within its working groups, Puglia managed to carve for itself a position in the spotlight thanks to its recent policies placing research and innovation at the heart of its economic growth strategy. Puglia was the only Italian region to attend the event, presenting its local excellence in the field of innovation as well as its support programs for small and medium-sized enterprises. The “European Innovation Summit” is one of the most important moments of confrontation between European policymakers, governments, and national – regional – local actors to identify adequate productive plans and economic strategies to pursue in response to the EU Directives. In this framework, a delegation from Puglia, composed of representatives from technology clusters and public-private aggregations for research, outlined and compared their experience with that of other European representatives. The delegation is led by the Councillor for Economic Development of the Region of Puglia, Loredana Capone, who explained: “The fact that Europe wants to listen to Puglia as an example for regional development, transforming investments in an innovation engine, is an honor and an opportunity. The European Innovation Summit identifies the mechanisms that Europe still needs to activate to allow innovation to become part of our daily life. And Puglia has already included in its development vision innovation as a key concept. For us, it is the basis for any policy that we enact, including health, agriculture and the tourism industry.”
