The Future Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) Foundation and the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino (I3P) have joined forces to promote the creation of Italian start-ups based on artificial intelligence. The synergy between the two entities took shape with the launch of the FAIR Acceleration Program 2025, an initiative - promoted by the FAIR Foundation and implemented by I3P - that aims to provide structured support to a selection of technological projects, born from academic research activities, to catalyze their evolution into young companies at the forefront of AI applications.
The first edition of the program, launched in October for a duration of two months, provides a personalized path for each project, with acceleration activities tailored to their respective needs, sectors of reference, specific team requirements, and ideal target markets. The aim of the initiative is to provide aspiring innovators with the key entrepreneurial skills, the most useful tools, and the most efficient working methods to shape a successful start-up that can capitalize on the scientific expertise already gained to establish competitively on the market.
The promoters and topics of the program
Established in 2022 in Pisa, Italy, by 5 research institutions, 13 universities, and 5 companies, the FAIR Foundation is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to implement projects funded under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and any additional subsequent funding in the field of artificial intelligence, coordinating an extensive partnership. The FAIR Foundation intends to contribute significantly to the objectives set out in the Italian Strategic Program on Artificial Intelligence, advancing frontier research, promoting AI-based innovation, and offering opportunities to talented individuals in this field.
I3P is a public incubator, founded in Turin in 1999 and recognized as one of the best university incubators in Italy and worldwide for the breadth and quality of its portfolio of innovative companies. I3P focuses on entrepreneurial projects with high technological intensity and growth potential, founded either by university students, researchers or external entrepreneurs, providing strategic consulting, coaching, mentoring, fundraising support and workspaces. I3P's mission is to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem, with the aim of generating economic development and employment in innovative industrial sectors.
The acceleration program organized by Fondazione FAIR and I3P is divided into training modules, expert mentorship sessions, networking opportunities, market testing, and support in validating business models. After the initial kick-off and assessment phases, with in-depth analysis of the starting point of each project, the program includes a series of thematic meetings for training and application of the main methods for shaping a start-up, including definition of business models and value propositions, the customer discovery process, the development of a market strategy, the identification of growth levers, the economic-financial plan, an introduction to fundraising and investor readiness, and the presentation of a pitch deck to potential investors and stakeholders.
AI innovation on stage at Pitch Day
The final culmination of the program will be the public presentation of the projects during Pitch Day, scheduled for December 11, 2025, as part of the FAIR General Conference scheduled for December 10-12 in Rome. The overall event will bring together all the partners involved and the winners of the FAIR project's cascading calls for proposals, funded by the PNRR, from both research and business worlds. There will be opportunities for scientific insights into the most significant results of the project in various AI sectors, for the showcase of companies in the FAIR ecosystem, with pitches and exhibition spaces, and for institutional meetings. This will be a particularly valuable setting to bring the results of the acceleration program and the work of the supported teams to the stage.
The six projects participating in the program, already selected through a call for solutions completed in recent months, range from the development of digital twins for the agricultural sector to the use of smart tools in the field of neuroscience, the design of scalable cloud infrastructures, blockchain networks, and new software and hardware solutions for the national and international market needs of the near future.
