2006 - Start Cup expands to include all 3 Piedmont Universities

The year 2006 opened with a new development of great importance – the entry of the University of Piedmont into the Start Cup, expanding the competition to truly regional proportions. The competition has thus extended its catchment area to include all the universities in the Piedmont region, and hence approx. 90,000 undergraduate students, over 3,000 lecturers and researchers, and 2,000 Ph.D. students.

The Business Skills Course. Round IV – Promoted and Organised by LISEM, I3P and COREP. Once again this year, the business skills course was coupled to the Start Cup Torino Piemonte, with students matched to competition participants to work, from May to July, on a business plan to start up an enterprise to be incubated in a partner incubator. The course was run free of charge for students, and a final prize of €700 was awarded. Preincubation

THE 2006 START CUP TORINO PIEMONTE

106 Business Ideas.
39 Business Plans.

THE WINNERS
1° prize 10.000 € AMC Instruments
2° prize 7.000 € Microla Optoelectronics
3° prize 5.000 € Mybasol

Piemontech committed itself to investing €50,000 in the enterprise started up from the first prize-winning business plan.

Winners of the Special €5,000 Prizes
Biotech Prize: Notopharm
Women & Innovation Novara Prize Biosurfattanti
Women & Innovation Torino Prize C.D.M
Piedmont Region Prize: Mybatec
Torino Wireless Prize: DiVA
Urmet Telecomunicazioni Prize: Wildix International

Winners of the Local €5,000 Prizes:
Torino Cage Chemicals
Lisem Brainer
Cuneo TMA Tecnologie Meccaniche Applicate
Alessandria OZ Fuell Cells
Novara (joint winner) Biosurfattanti
Novara (joint winner) Mybatec
Novara (joint winner) Notopharm

4 December, 2006 The 2006 PNI in Udine jointly won by Udine and Milan The 2006 National Innovation Award was adjudicated in an "innovative" way this year, with the panel of judges, chaired by Prof. Cristiana Conpagno choosing two joint winners for first prize – Ske from the Start Cup Milano Lombardia and FoodTech from Start Cup Udine. Third prize went to Ananas from the Start Cup Veneto. Although not on the podium of winners, the finalists from the Start Cup Torino Piemonte attained the outstanding result of being short-listed by the panel.

The awards ceremony, presented by Fabio Fazio, was held on 4 December at the theatre Giovanni da Udine. The annual Expo Innovazione, qui was held once again at the science park of the University of Udine, featuring 12 bright and colourful stands to present the 36 knowledge-based business ideas from the 27 Italian universities in the running for the National Innovation Award. For further information of the awards ceremony, visit www.premioinnovazione.it

18 December, 2006 -
Ten enterprises take their leave from I3P, with Seac02 winning the Start-Up of the Year Award.
Seac02 won the 2006 Start-Up of the Year Award, held at the “Citadella Politecnica”, the brand new offices of I3P. Attending the ceremony were the secretary-general of the Chamber of Commerce of Torino, Guido Bolatto, the rector of the Politecnico di Torino, Francesco Profumo, and the president of the Unione Industriale of Torino, Alberto Tazzetti. The Award was presented by Mr Tazzetti to Seac02, an enterprise which in three years has grown in quality and size – from innovative start-up to a fully-fledged dynamic business, affirming itself in the field of communications based on virtual and heightened reality. The event was also an opportunity to see off another nine enterprises that had completed their incubation periods, and are now ready to face the market on their own two feet.

10 ENTERPRISES LEAVE I3P: Seac02 • ATS - Alps Telecomunications Software • Casper Technology • CSDomotica • Ovolab • Dynamic Fun • Faber Software • Iplug • Sc-Aip • Sicurante

15 NEW ENTERPRISES JOIN I3P: Electro Power Sistems • LTT • Able • OZ Fuell Cells • FLEXCON • SIR • G.W.M. • OPTI.M.A.D. Engineering • ENVISENS Technologies • EXEMPLAR • BEPS Engineering • MICROLA Optoelectronics • MDT ITALIA • BRAINER • TMA