On 25 and 26 January, the FS Group attended the eighth edition of Open Italy, the Elis event on open & collaborative innovation dedicated to companies, start-ups and innovation enablers held at the Aquario Romano.

During the first day, specific sessions on open innovation and multi-corporate working tables laid the foundations for the innovation needs of 2024.

The exchange and discussion opened up multiple opportunities for reflection and possible planning of co-innovation between several companies, even if with different business goals. The complex and multi-faceted discussion brought into play many points of view and common needs.

Last year, the FS Group saw Italferr, Anas and Trenitalia co-innovate with start-ups capable of proposing promising innovative solutions.

One particularly valuable opportunity to highlight the FS Group's initiatives in the world of open innovation was the “Innovation to Impact” event, during which prizes were awarded to the projects and teams involved in nine proofs of concept based on nine different use cases.

Specifically, Anas developed the proof of concept in collaboration with:

• Elif Lab, a start-up that has developed an innovative application for monitoring infrastructure through image analysis, leveraging machine learning algorithms.
• Ticinum Aerospace and its Hybrid Battery, which used innovative hybrid batteries in road construction sites.

In addition, Italferr and Anas have launched a multi-corporate collaboration with the start-up Artys on high-tech solutions for environmental monitoring and hydrogeological risk management.

Meanwhile, Trenitalia worked with:

• Fairtiq, a Swiss start-up that presented a ticketing app that uses the “check in/be out” (CiBo) hands-free solution model that enables users to quickly access transport using the GPS function of their smartphone, aiming to offer an e-ticket at the best fare for the type of trip.
• G-Move, a start-up that uses proprietary technology to monitor flows in motion, on-board vehicles, and in static environments, such as stations.

Italferr has also developed solutions with two start-ups:

• Waterjade, which proposed a user-friendly tool to extract climate forecast data from the main available models and to also provide a statistical analysis useful for planning purposes.
• Bluentensor, which introduced customised artificial intelligence solutions with a project on the customisation of algorithms already developed in the area of Natural Language Processing, customising them for Italferr's specific needs, with the aim of enhancing office automation.

Trenitalia and Italferr experimented with the solution offered by Sandsiv, working on two different use cases. Trenitalia has developed solutions for voice of the customer and web listening on the public and member’s areas of the website, and worked with Italferr to implement customer experience management, AI customer satisfaction and data analytics solutions.

Finally, each FS Group company received the “Impact Award”, the recognition linked to the impact generated by the projects Elis proposed based on the calculation of the SROI (Social Return on Investment), which identifies the economic value of the social impact achieved by the projects.

As always, the closing event was an opportunity to share experiences, needs and opportunities. There was also a talk, which was attended by Daniele Pes, Innovation Manager of the FS Group, Pierpaolo Gambini, Senior Vice President of Innovation and IP at Leonardo S.p.A., and Alberto Onetti, Chairman of Mind The Bridge.