In the post-Covid era, the digitalization of companies and human resources is essential for a territory to be resilient and competitive at the international level. A growing number of activities are carried on online or through digital tools and technologies so territories need a strategy to provide younger generations and traditional businesses and organizations with digital competences and mindset.
Digital District is a strategic project developed by Unindustria Reggio Emilia whose aim is to provide advanced services designed to help businesses tackle the challenges and transformations connected with Industry 4.0. It has its roots in the White Paper, which sets out the goals that Reggio Emilia businesses must seek to achieve in the coming years. It is the product of the contribution and collaboration of over fifty Reggio Emilia entrepreneurs who, between late 2018 and early 2019, worked in a spirit of “co-creation” within four working groups, each focusing on a specific topic of crucial importance to the future of local businesses: education, innovation, local area and SME internationalization, structured around six new macro-projects:
- Robo Lab: An experimental educational robotic laboratory providing vocational guidance to students from primary through to secondary school, whose goal is to promote the development of technical and digital skills.
- Human & Technology Training Center: An innovative training environment consisting of laboratories equipped with advanced technologies designed to develop specialistic skills on digital transformation.
- Digital Automation Lab: A technology application laboratory for advanced manufacturing - digital, integrated and connected - for process innovation and technology transfer.
- Tech-up Accelerator: To support innovative start-ups and entrepreneurship by promoting open innovation and acceleration actions.
- Digital Degrees (to be inaugurated in 2022): Fostering partnerships between the business world and academia, collaborating in the creation of new university courses centered on the distinctive character of digital disciplines.
- ITS Digital Maker: A highly professionalizing technology school for young graduates, in the heart of the technological pole of the mechanical and mechatronics area of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
