From the Alpbach Forum comes an important recognition for the "Trentino System" of research and innovation, which dominates unchallenged the Euregio 2023 Awards. In the "Young Researchers" category, the podium is all from Trentino, with Donato Scrinzi (Edmund Mach Foundation) in first place, followed by Laura Battistel (University of Trento) and Alessandro Sartori (Bruno Kessler Foundation). Instead, Tommaso Morbiato, CEO and founder of Windcity, a startup established in Progetto Manifattura in Rovereto and star of the latest edition of Trentino Sviluppo's Investor Day, won the prestigious Euregio Innovation Award.

Euregio and Alpabach: a historic connection

The idea of rewarding the best of research and innovation in the three regions that make up the Euregio - Trentino, South Tyrol and Tyrol - is fully in line with the mission of the Alpabach Forum, an annual event in which hundreds of academics, politicians, sector experts, and students talk about economic, political, scientific, and environmental issues in a small Austrian town.

Recently, Invest in Trentino published an in-depth article on the Euregio 2023 Innovation Award with the purpose of publicizing the opportunity to all Trentino entrepreneurs active in the field of energy transition and supply security, which is the theme for the year in Alpbach.

60 applications, 15 finalists, 6 prizes awarded

Interesting numbers, those of the 2023 edition, testifying on the one hand to the innate innovative drive of Euregio companies and research centers, and on the other hand to their increasing focus on crucial issues such as sustainability and the environment.

This year 60 projects by researchers and entrepreneurs (e.g., inventors, developers, project managers), all active in the field of energy transition, participated in the contest. Of these, 15 made it to the final stage and 6 made it to the podium. The two projects that won first place are:

• The Euregio prize for young researchers under the age of 35 was awarded to Donato Scrinzi from the Edmund Mach Foundation (San Michele all'Adige, Trentino). In his study Hydrothermal carbonization as process intensification for biogas and high-quality co-compost production form municipal organic waste: The C2Land Project, Donato Scrinzi addressed the production of biogas and high-quality compost from municipal organic waste using hydrothermal carbonization. The proposed model should contribute both to a more sustainable energy supply, less dependent on fossil gas, and to optimising the treatment of local waste towards a circular bio-economy.
• The Euregio Innovation Prize was awarded to Tommaso Morbiato, CEO and founder of Windcity, a startup located in Rovereto, for his 'Variable Nature Energy' project. The Windcity company developed, patented and produced a passive turbine with variable geometry. This is a new energy conversion concept that should make it possible to efficiently extract energy from the turbulent wind core and turn urban wind waste into a cycle.