Piedmont

Piedmont Region is characterised by 396.000 companies (45.000 of the manufacturing sector), 122.000 craft businesses, over 1.700.000 people employed (517.000 in the manufacturing sector). It represents a hotbed of excellence over a landscape, which is 38% plains, 33% hills and 29% mountainous terrain set to be the backdrop for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. One thousand kilometers of motorways, two thousand of railways with high capacity lines, one international airport located in the suburb of Turin (two if we consider also Milano-Malpensa) and another four on its borders:

Tradition and innovation are the two key words to understand Piedmont as it looks to the future: The region is first and foremost a "factory of stability", that has shown how it can develop its own economy not only in car production but also around the engineering industry, textiles, chemicals, food, aerospace and IT. This leadership has over time built up its industrial credibility and acted as a launching pad for the development of financial and service industries. This is the reason behind a greatly diversified economy in constant contact with the international markets (goods and services are exported every year for 31,000 million Euros).

But this equilibrium must be dynamic: Piedmont is also the "factory of innovation". 1.3 billion Euros are invested every year in research and development (16% of all Italian investment). This means that Piedmont creates one twelfth of national wealth and one sixth of "innovative thinking". This innovation is seen in one hundred research and development laboratories, a network of Science Parks throughout the region linked with the industrial districts and three universities connected to the most important academic seats in the world.

Concerning the chemical sector, Piedmont region employs about 7% of employees in chemistry at national level.The major share of employees and chemical production as well as research is concentrated in Provincia di Novara, that has a common border with Lombardy Region. Provincia di Novara is one of 20 provincial observatorieses for the chemical sector in Italy, which are an operative branch of the Italian Ministry of Industry.To conclude, Piedmont has 3 Universities with chemistry-related departments, 25 private and public Research Centres (excluding the departments of the universities) with recognized specialization in chemistry-related topics and 4 Scientific & Technological Parks with chemistryrelated competencies, 2 incubators and 2 Business Innovation Centres.