Business and nonprofit

We provide expertise and instrumentation for consulting services, studies, analyses and experimental testing.
We conduct commissioned research and provide consulting services in the fields of technology, medicine, law, business, and the humanities. We guide you in identifying the most appropriate department or interdepartmental research centre for the specific research area, analysis or experimental trial being commissioned.

In relation to the payments due for consulting and commissioned research services, it is possible to benefit from tax incentives.

Multi-year scientific collaborations with PhD students are possible by funding of research fellowships or scholarships. An academic tutor and a business tutor will supervise the research activity on a specific topic agreed upon together. By integrating into your R&D team a young researcher, whose doctoral activities will take place partly at your company, you will be able to develop a medium-to-long-term research project, and acquire innovative and highly qualified skills.
The PhD student may later be employed, taking advantage of incentives (high-level PhD apprenticeship) and tax incentives (excellences bonus).

Find out how to collaborate with the PhD programme

We can participate together in research and innovation projects on issues related to the most important social challenges of our time at the regional, national and European levels. When participating in competitive calls and related initiatives, we can help you identify research groups and facilities to collaborate with.
With more than 300 projects funded at the European level by Horizon 2020 and numerous other projects funded at the national and regional levels, we are among the top Italian universities in terms of attracting funding from competitive calls.

Check out the competitive calls and initiatives in which we are involved

Joint research laboratories are physical spaces where equipment is shared, and where your employees and our research groups work in close contact, fostering the contamination of ideas, everyday discussion and the mutual transfer of competences and training.
The joint laboratories may be set up on the University premises or within your company, based on a multiannual cooperation plan and medium-long term investments.

We cooperate in the design and implementation of joint events linked to research and innovation topics. Depending on specific requirements, there are a range of formats on offer:

• Information and networking events: meetings and direct contacts, as well as presentations and opportunities for cooperation with us, often with internal and external testimonials and partner institutions;
• Round tables: scientific and technological meetings between academia and industry on specific topics and future trends, targeting mainly the operators of individual sectors;
• Workshops: a format suited for translating the needs of individual companies with interests in innovation and highly specialised research with a view to scouting academic competences;
• Challenges: requested and promoted by highly innovative companies, stimulating new ideas and solutions created by students and young researchers;
• Hackathons: targeting teams of students at the proposal of companies wishing to increase the level of innovation of specific solutions, both technological and otherwise.

Businesses and non-profit organisations funding research and development activities are entitled to tax incentives, including business tax reductions, income tax deductions, and simplified procedures for establishment and management.

Patents are a means of transferring knowledge, produced within innovative research programmes, to businesses and the community.
Businesses can take advantage of the University’s intellectual property rights through exclusive and non-exclusive licences, transfers, exploitation agreements, option contracts, and also have the possibility to access the consulting services of inventors to facilitate their application to their own products or processes, or for further developments.
Our patents are divided into 7 areas and apply to numerous production sectors:

• Agriculture and food
• Chemistry and biotechnology
• Pharmaceutics
• Electrical and electronic engineering
• Mechanical and construction engineering
• Medical engineering
• Vegetable varieties

Find out more

We promote and support spinoffs and startups, innovative businesses developed by enhancing the results of research activities of our teaching staff or based on their students’ ideas, playing a key function in system integration and networking, leading to synergies with industrial, commercial and financial partners.
Various opportunities for cooperation with businesses are available:

• Hackathons: through specific projects, businesses set problems to be solved together with students, to develop new ideas and intuitions;
• Mentorships: joining the community of University of Bologna investors;
• Investments: investing in a startup or a spinoff, venture capital, business angel and equity crowd-funding, promoting the development of businesses with great potential for growth;
• Interventions in activities like inspirational talks, seminars, workshops, events;
• Support for the promotion and design of businesses by students or coming from research results;
• Design activities for networking initiatives between start-ups in the ecosystem of the University of Bologna.

Find out more on the I.D.E.A. website

Oper.space is our centre for innovation. We connect universities, businesses and institutions, so that together we can tackle complex societal problems through innovation pathways that generate solutions centred on people's real needs.

Learn more on the OPER.SPACE website

We support you in your innovation processes and related organisational and professional changes, which often require the updating of competences or the acquisition of new ones. Starting from your requirements, we define and develop customised vocational training projects using competency-based learning models.
You will be guided in identifying the most appropriate solutions within our broad range of programmes which, at different levels of study and vertical integration, covers every topic in the scientific, technical, technological, legal, regulatory, social, psychological, economic and managerial fields.

Visit the dedicated page for more detailed information

Every year, we produce a wide variety of talents ready to enter the job market, and support companies in their search for qualified personnel among our graduating students and graduates.
The opportunities for businesses run from teaching partnerships, coming into contact with students before they graduate, to Job Placement services, designed specifically to facilitate contacts with and recruitment of fresh graduates.

Visit the dedicated page for more detailed information

Industrial partnerships are multi-annual agreements between a company and the University that stipulate the Parties' willingness to collaborate on issues of common interest.

The main objectives of industrial partnerships are:

• to structure and consolidate collaborative relations between the company and the University by stimulating dialogue between the parties;
• to share equipment, laboratories and research infrastructures so as to incentivise cooperation, contamination and skills transfers between University researchers and businesses, also involving undergraduate and PhD students;
• to participate jointly in EU, national and regional initiatives and calls for funding;
• to cooperate in activities aiming to stimulate business innovation processes (technology transfer, open innovation);
• to invest in the growth of future human resources by supporting PhD students and young researchers, and facilitating the entry of new profiles into the company;
• to train the human resources of today through integration and updating of skills.

Industrial partnerships fall into three categories, which differ in terms of duration, expected expenditure, type of support and type of negotiation: Collaboration Framework Agreement, Collaboration Protocol, Joint Research Laboratory Agreement.

Collaboration Framework Agreement

A Framework Agreement defines a medium/long-term joint strategy to be implemented by identifying objectives, tools and resources with which to work synergistically so as to achieve ambitious goals in the areas of research and development, innovation, human capital and social responsibility.

The main features of a Framework Agreement are:

• duration of between three and five years;
• one-off negotiation of the main contractual clauses, including Intellectual Property;
• commitment by the company to approve in advance the allocation of an annual or multi-year budget for the development of collaborative activities;
• ongoing dialogue between the company and the University in order to share needs, expectations, strategies and priorities through the definition of a Coordination Committee and the identification of a dedicated Key Account Manager;
• careful planning and monitoring of all the activities, fostering greater involvement and coordination, on the company side, between the various business functions and lines, and, on the university side, between the different departments involved.

Collaboration Protocol

A Cooperation Protocol defines the willingness to explore areas and modes of collaboration in the short/medium term, with a view to assessing whether and how best to structure the relationship in the long term.

The main features of a Collaboration Protocol are:

• duration of 1 or 2 years;
• use of contracts with the University's standard IP conditions, to be negotiated if necessary on a case-by-case basis;
• no commitment on the part of the company to allocate budgets in advance;
• identification of macro-themes and areas of activity to be explored without the definition of a Coordination Committee; 
• support for the above activities from the Business Relations Unit, if and when requested;

Joint Research Laboratory Agreement

A Joint Research Laboratory Agreement defines the establishment of a shared space, whether physical or virtual, in which University and company researchers, PhD and other students collaborate daily, with a mutual benefit deriving from the sharing of skills and mindsets.

The main features of a Joint Laboratory Agreement are:

• duration compatible with wide-ranging projects with a medium-to-long-term horizon;
• definition of the main constituent elements of a laboratory (e.g. space, equipment, intellectual property, macro-themes, etc.);
• identification of sufficient financial coverage to manage activities and laboratory spaces;
• careful and continuous planning of resources and activities in terms of research, laboratory teaching and on-the-job training;
• appointment of a Scientific Director and/or two Technical Managers (one on each side) and/or a Management Committee.

List of the University of Bologna’s industrial partnerships

Consult the list of Framework Agreements, Cooperation Protocols and Joint Laboratory Agreements of the University of Bologna with regional and national companies, business associations and consortia, and specific production chains.

See the list of industrial partnerships

Supporting the initiatives, projects and activities of the University will promote the image of your company.

Find out how to activate a sponsorship

Cooperation ensures greater strength, through the integration of all economic, social and cultural realities, running initiatives for the community and society as a whole, not only locally but globally. More and more businesses are showing their sensitivity, interest and desire to invest in corporate social responsibility initiatives, which are part of our institutional mission and founding values, and in some cases these become an integral part of the business strategy.

Companies and non-profit organisations interested in collaborating with us in this area can take advantage of our expertise and experience to implement their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects. Numerous researchers are already actively contributing to the CSR projects of large companies, primarily in the fields of healthcare, sustainability, and development cooperation.

In many cases, these projects capitalise on research experience, but the opposite can also be said, with corporate social responsibility projects triggering further research, once more fuelling that virtuous circle of knowledge and civil society.

Businesses working on the same corporate social responsibility initiative topics as the university and wishing to support them can contribute to their implementation, making available their own experience, providing materials and instruments or funding.

We have aligned the objectives of our Strategic Plan with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The initiatives aiming to achieve these goals come in many forms: sustainability projects in environmental, energy and transport fields, social innovation and development cooperation projects, activities to enhance the artistic and cultural heritage, educational and sports initiatives. All these projects demand a very high level of multidisciplinary integration, and our many competences and disciplines are an indispensable added value for their success.

Artistic and cultural heritage, environment

• FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano
  Together with the Italian National Trust, we strive for a culture that enhances and protects our historical and artistic heritage, our landscape and the environment, and cooperate in the training of professionals in heritage management and conservation. Students serve as ‘ciceroni’ on guided tours as part of the FAI Autumn and Spring Days.

Legality inclusiveness

• Cultural cooperation with LIBERA
  For a better understanding of issues related to organised crime, anti-mafia legislation, the evolution of mafia phenomena, the mechanisms through which political corruption originates and is exercised, as well as of democratic practices and citizenship education. Activities for students, last-year students, interns, PhD students and researchers. 
• ORLANDO Associazione Femminista e di Donne
  Learning and research pathways on gender and feminist studies. Activities primarily designed for the student community, but also open to the public. Cooperation involves educational activities such as the seminar on Ethics and Politics: a Gender Studies Perspective and the Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies (GEMMA), while research focusses on Italian feminism and the development of gender studies, with contributions to the 2013-2015 Joint European Doctorate in Women’s and Gender Studies (EDGES).

Citizen Science and healthcare support

• VOLABO – Associazione per lo Sviluppo del Volontariato
  We support the Università del Volontariato (University of Volunteering) project to train transferable skills in volunteering. For educators, volunteer workers, the student community and anyone working in the field.  
  12 joint training activities were held in the 2021-2023 three-year period, involving 525 enrolled participants in total. 
• Università Verde di Bologna APS – Centro Antartide 
  The OPS! project engages the student community in ethnographic observation at the ER waiting areas and in the humanisation of emergency medicine. The partnership involves Università Verde di Bologna APS – Centro Antartide and the University Departments offering degree programmes in social, educational and anthropological areas.
• Doctors Without Borders
  Theoretical and practical courses on health emergency management, held by experts involved in the Association’s projects. 
• Alcoholics and Gamblers Anonymous Association, Emilia Romagna, Universities in the region
  Learning pathways on substance and behavioural addictions (alcohol, gambling) within degree programmes in medicine, psychology, nursing, education, social work. Direct testimonies from the Associations, group demonstration sessions and involvement in dissertation projects.