Elevating the informative heritage and skills of the chamber system by adopting Open Innovation as a reference model to support the digital transformation of the Public Administration and businesses. These are the foundations of the project promoted by Unioncamere and InfoCamere, which, in collaboration with The Doers, the Open Innovation consultancy firm of Digital Magics, the leading incubator in Italy for early-stage investments in digital startups, has initiated a system-wide “Open Innovation” path that now leads to the launch of the Call “Data-Driven Innovation: Chambers of Commerce and Startups together for a Digital Italy“, targeting innovative startups and SMEs in Italy.

At the heart of the project, which undergoes its first phase of experimentation in five Chambers of Commerce (Florence, Messina, Milan, Padua, Turin), is the definition of two strategic themes for the chamber system (known as “Challenges“), aimed at the selection and implementation of experiments to be carried out in each Chamber. In a second phase of the initiative, these challenges can evolve into operational projects.

Between July and October, preliminary activities were conducted, identifying the needs of the involved stakeholders (Chambers of Commerce and businesses), defining the two thematic areas for the “Challenges” among the candidates, and setting up the necessary tools for the call, starting with the online platform for collecting applications.

The Call is open to all startups capable of providing technologies for the digitization and automation of processes, with the goal of streamlining and making internal chamber procedures more agile and productive, as well as those with external implications (Internal process automation) and/or high-innovation solutions that can contribute to improving the management of information assets by increasing the accuracy, timeliness, coherence, and completeness of the data managed by the Chamber System (Intelligent Data Analysis & Management).

In this context, the first case seeks NLP (Natural Language Processing) technologies: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Conversational Design, Chatbots & Virtual Assistants, Virtual Testing, RPA (Robotic Process Automation). For the second type of solutions, technologies in Big Data Analysis are sought: Data Governance, Data Cleansing, Data Quality Assurance, Predictive Analysis, Sentiment Analysis.

After the call closes on February 19, 2024, an “Innovation Day” will be held in Rome on March 22, during which the selected startups will have the opportunity to present their projects to the representatives of the chamber system stakeholders, as well as industry experts. Each startup will have 5 minutes to present their product/service and 5 minutes to respond to questions from the audience.

Following the call, a Co-design program will allow the winners to work together with the Chambers of Commerce, Unioncamere, and InfoCamere to identify services and/or products consistent with the expectations of all stakeholders. Cooperative work will lead to the concrete finalization of the design of products and/or services of the startups/SMEs that stood out during the Innovation Day. The starting point will be the already existing services and/or products selected, followed by the adaptation of the same, through the Co-design phase, to the objectives of the stakeholders.

Participation details for the call and all relevant information about the initiative can be viewed and downloaded on the online platform.