Open Innovation Network: the ecosystem that unites startups, industry and research
The Open Innovation Network as a growth lever for Italy
Italy’s startup ecosystem is gaining momentum.In the first half of 2025, investm...
Italy’s startup ecosystem is gaining momentum.
In the first half of 2025, investments in startups reached €353.4 million across 99 funding deals, up 38.88% compared to the same period in 2024, when €254.5 million were raised in 87 rounds.
The number of transactions also increased by 13.79%, signaling renewed dynamism across the sector.
Growth is being driven above all by medtech, work and HR tech, biotech, deeptech and fintech, with medtech leading by number of rounds closed.
The rise of artificial intelligence and digitalization is also reflected in the quality of the funded startups, which are increasingly oriented toward technological and social impact.
Lombardy remains the most attractive region with 44.9% of rounds, followed by Tuscany, Lazio, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont.
This snapshot, presented at SIOS25 Summer at the Politecnico di Milano and compiled in StartupItalia’s mid-year report That’s Round, shows a country where innovation is once again taking center stage.
It is a clear sign that Italy is strengthening its innovation ecosystem, but to make this growth structural one more step is needed: connecting capabilities within stable, collaborative networks.
This is where the Open Innovation Network comes into play.
The concept of Open Innovation emerged in 2003 with Henry Chesbrough’s essay The Era of Open Innovation, which first challenged the closed model typical of industrial R&D.
According to Chesbrough, “companies can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas and pursue internal and external paths to market as they look to advance their technology.”
In 2014 Chesbrough and Marcel Bogers, in the paper Explicating Open Innovation: Clarifying an Emerging Paradigm for Understanding Innovation, offered a more precise definition: Open Innovation is a distributed innovation model that manages inbound and outbound flows of knowledge across organizational boundaries, for pecuniary and non-pecuniary reasons, consistent with the organization’s business model.
In short, Open Innovation breaks down the barrier between “inside” and “outside.”
Companies no longer innovate alone but build collaborative networks with startups, universities, research centers and other firms.
At the same time they externalize and valorize internal research results through technology licensing, spin-offs or strategic partnerships.
In an economic context marked by rapid change and growing technological complexity, open innovation has become a strategic requirement for competitiveness.
Research by the Osservatorio Startup Thinking at Politecnico di Milano confirms that an increasing number of Italian organizations have placed Open Innovation at the core of their strategies.
Top benefits include:
According to the 2024 Startup Thinking Observatory, 64% of companies use Open Innovation to explore new technological trends and 44% to identify business opportunities, confirming its strategic value in today’s competitive landscape.
IWithin this landscape, e-Novia acts as an architect of the innovation ecosystem.
The group does not merely support innovation, it structures it by connecting startups, research and industry in a system of shared value.
The Venture Studio model adopted by e-Novia integrates two complementary components:
• Innovation Consulting, guiding companies and institutions as they define technological and digital development strategies.
• Venture Building, turning scientific and technological research into new deep tech companies ready for the market.
What sets e-Novia apart is the integration of a complete operational ecosystem that provides supported startups with an internal multidisciplinary team, prototyping laboratories, access to investors and industrial partners, as well as legal, operational and go-to-market support.
This model shortens the path from research to business and enables startups to grow sustainably and competitively.
Through Physical AI, the union of artificial intelligence, sensing and mechatronic systems, e-Novia develops solutions that enhance industrial productivity, mobility, energy and urban services.
Each project is built in collaboration with academic and enterprise partners, following a method based on co-design, technology validation and industrial development.
This approach makes e-Novia a point of reference for those seeking a concrete, operational open innovation network where technology becomes measurable value for the market and for society.
The effectiveness of an open innovation network is measured by its ability to generate real impact.
Partnerships between startups and corporates must deliver tangible results: new companies, patents, technology supply chains.
A mature innovation ecosystem rests on three fundamental pillars:
e-Novia’s Venture Studio model is built on these principles.
It reduces technology validation timelines, accelerates startup growth and offers enterprises direct access to innovations ready for industrialization.
Each new collaboration strengthens the network and fuels a cumulative growth cycle: research becomes business and business generates new research.
Events such as SMAU are important moments of connection between startups, industry and research, though not the only ones.
Today SMAU is a platform where Italian companies meet to share experiences and discover emerging technologies, promoting a culture of open innovation.
Through workshops, guided sessions and networking activities, it facilitates the meeting of innovation demand and supply in a dynamic, collaborative context.
On 11 November, Federico Moro, Head of Venture Studio at e-Novia, was invited to attend SMAU during the days dedicated to Open Innovation and Venture Building.
His attendance confirmed e-Novia’s role as a recognized player in Italy’s innovation ecosystem and a reference point in the dialogue between startups, industry and research.
However, the Open Innovation Network does not live only in public gatherings.
It is built every day through strategic collaborations, European programs, joint labs and industrial partnerships that share a common goal: turning knowledge into economic and social value.
For e-Novia, SMAU and similar initiatives are nodes in a continuous effort to build an Italian innovation ecosystem in which every actor, public or private, academic or entrepreneurial, is part of a shared growth project.
In the traditional model, innovation was a closed process confined to corporate labs.
Today the complexity of technological challenges requires collaboration, speed and cross-pollination.
An open innovation network embodies this paradigm shift: competition turns into cooperation and intellectual property becomes a space for sharing.
With its ecosystem of companies and partners, e-Novia is a concrete example of shared enterprise, where growth is collective and value arises from the integration of complementary capabilities.
Its model helps build a scalable system in which research becomes business and innovation becomes part of the country’s productive infrastructure.
Italy has all the assets to become a European laboratory for open innovation: human capital, top-tier universities, industrial know-how and a growing startup ecosystem.
The decisive step is to build structured networks capable of turning collaboration into lasting value.
Every day e-Novia works to make this vision a reality: an open innovation network that brings together scientific research, industrial technology and entrepreneurial vision.
A system where innovation is shared, accessible and impact-driven.
👉 Discover how e-Novia promotes an Open Innovation Network that connects startups, industry and research to build Italy’s innovation ecosystem.
1. What is an Open Innovation Network?
It is a network of companies, startups, universities and research centers that collaborate to develop innovations by sharing knowledge and resources. It promotes cross-pollination and accelerates the transition from research to industrial application.
2. Why is Open Innovation important for Italian companies?
According to the Startup Thinking Observatory, 64% of companies use it to explore new technological trends and 44% to identify new business opportunities. It means greater speed, lower costs and access to advanced expertise.
3. What is e-Novia’s role within the Open Innovation Network?
e-Novia operates as a Venture Studio and Innovation Consulting company, creating synergies between startups, industry and research. It provides an internal multidisciplinary team, prototyping labs, access to investors and industrial partners, and legal, operational and go-to-market support.
4. What are the main benefits of Open Innovation?
New business opportunities, reduced risks and R&D costs, faster adoption of emerging technologies, stronger interaction with the innovation ecosystem and improved competitiveness.
5. How is an effective innovation ecosystem built?
Through stable collaboration, shared resources and strategic alignment between research, business and institutions. An open innovation network only works if it creates measurable value for all the players involved.
