Industrial relationships
For more than half a century, the DEI has been leader in research in Systems and Control, Telecommunications, Electronics, and Information Technology, contributing to the growth of the ICT industry and to the development of new technologies.
The relationship with the industry has a central role in the Department’s strategic plans:
- Projects developed in collaboration with the industry cater for about the 80% of the Department’s budget, and constitute the main activities in which DEI members are engaged. Almost 40% of these projects are totally funded by the industry, while the remaining 40% are partially supported by public bodies, mainly by the EU.
- DEI fosters the development of long-term strategic alliances with top companies, through the sharing of research and development activities, the joint participation to public research programs, the co-authoring of patents, and the organization of training activities.
- DEI continuously monitors, in collaboration with leading companies, the requirements of the job market in the ICT sector, to ensure that DEI graduates and Ph.D. students acquire skills and knowledge that match the requirements of research and development in the industry.
- DEI invests substantial resources in research labs equipped with the infrastructures that are needed for granting highly specialized services to the industries, including training on dedicated equipment, product certification, prototype development, special-purpose measurements, and building of technology demonstrators.
The strategic collaboration with an ICT consortium and with numerous spin-off companies specialized in the most diverse ICT sectors makes DEI the hub of one of the largest European technological R&D systems, capable of supporting companies and public administrations in the process of innovation.
