Jointly promoted by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the Institute of Marine Sciences of the National Research Council (CNR-ISMAR), and the Biodiversity Gateway of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC).
SIF 2025, scheduled for Friday, September 19, at the Santa Margherita Auditorium, aims to showcase the creation of a business ecosystem composed of research institutions, innovative startups, and established companies that recognize the strategic value of biodiversity.
Mario Sprovieri, CNR- Director and e Coordinar of the Biodiversity Gateway Venice:
«The Biodiversity Gateway, with its digital portal and physical locations in numerous cities across the country, including Venice, offers modern tools for learning about biodiversity issues and places for strong and effective interaction with the business world, stakeholders, and a space open to citizens. The Gateway ecosystem coordinates and supports start-up studies, upskilling, and networking activities with businesses that intend to develop new business paths based on biodiversity issues.»
The theme “Biodiversity as a source of strategic innovation” will kick off the session on fragility with presentations by, among others, a group of researchers from the CNR (National Research Council) who, moderated by Federica Foglini, Coordinator of the Digital Biodiversity Gateway and Chief Technologist at CNR-ISMAR, will discuss projects involving the practical application of biodiversity studies.
Federico Falcieri (CNR_ISMAR) will moderate the second session, which will introduce national and international startups and scale-ups in the world of biodiversity, such as: Planctolab with Stéphane Ghenassia, Pronoe with Juan Buceta, Plastic Odyssey with Simon Bernard, Abit with Matteo Zinni, and 3Bee with Lucrezia Palma.
The sections
Fragility: “Biological ecosystems are becoming increasingly fragile, hence the need to constantly monitor their level of biodiversity, leveraging scientific advances. The knowledge generated by research institutions is made available externally through technology transfer activities.”
Resilience: “Through venture building activities, innovative startups are created with the aim of implementing technologies that restore the correct level of biodiversity in damaged biological ecosystems, thereby making them resilient, while at the same time generating economic value.
Robustness: “In order for a biological ecosystem to become robust, and therefore pursue preventive conservation, it is necessary to design the organization of established companies in such a way as to activate open innovation processes that facilitate collaboration with innovative startups.”
Antifragility: “Platform management allows interactions between different actors to be orchestrated, thereby creating a business ecosystem whose role is to guide and implement a strategy for transforming biological ecosystems, enabling them to thrive thanks to disruptions.”
The tenth edition of SIF is jointly promoted by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Institute of Marine Sciences of the National Research Council (CNR – ISMAR) and the Biodiversity Gateway of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) and sponsored and supported by the Veneto Region.
A central element of the Forum will be the presentation of the “Biodiversity Gateway,” the first physical and digital access point in Italy dedicated to biodiversity, with two main physical locations in Venice and Palermo and four territorial nodes in Rome, Fano, Naples, and Lecce. It is an innovative model of interaction and connection between scientific research, economics, and society.
