Ambasciata d’Italia

CANBERRA

Bollettino della Comunità Scientifica in Australasia

Dicembre 2007

93

Journey in the Academic and Research world of Italy Anna Maria Fioretti

Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (ISMB)

Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (ISMB) was set up in the year 2000 by its founding Members Compagnia di San Paolo and Politecnico di Torino. Today ISMB also has 4 industrial partners (Motorola, SKF, STMicroelectronics and Telecom Italia Lab). The Institute’s mission is to perform applied research activities in strong cooperation with Academia and Industry. Research activities are organized in projects in partnership with industrial and academic partners. ISMB operates using the co-funding scheme, where about 50% of the research costs are covered by national and international institutions (Italian Ministry of Research, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Local Government, European Union, Private Industries). ISMB employs about 100 researchers in 8 synergic sectors: Photonics, Antennas and ElectroMagnetic Compatibility, Telecommunications (focused on Wireless Sensor Networks and NFC), Microsystems and Materials, Networking, e-Security, Satellite Navigation and Positioning (Galileo), Design and Development of Services and Applications for Mobility (with particular focus on Automotive, Multimedia and Digital Terrestrial Television for Handheld devices, e-Health applications). The research labs are managed in partnership with Politecnico di Torino. About 100 researchers, professors and PhD students from Politecnico di Torino, as well as researchers from the industrial partners operate in the same laboratories, creating a fertile cooperation environment with a good balance between academic and applied research. ISMB is very active in establishing international cooperation agreements. The most relevant are with UCLA (in two areas: with the Anderson School of Management for a program on Business and Management training, and with the School of Engineering, with a joint lab on vehicular communications), with the Office of Outer Space Affairs of the United Nations, and more recently also with the Australian NICTA, an institution which proved to have in common with ISMB a similar structure, mission and history. Apart from these more stable cooperation agreements, ISMB is member of several consortia associated to European Projects. ISMB operates in Turin in close relationship with other research institutions such as the Research Center of FIAT, the Research Center of Motorola, and the Incubator of Innovative Startups of Politecnico di Torino. We would like to thank Edoardo Calia for the manuscript