The blogpost at hand belongs to a series highlighting the various keynote presentations of our public event labelled ‘Get on top of your complex challenges’ which was hosted by the public:START consortium on the 14th of October as part of the 35th edition of the annual ERASMUSDAYS.
A broad spectrum of speakers representing public organization and research institutions provided an enlightening insight into how they are currently dealing with complex challenges in their own domain. Now, we want to share their success factors with you.
THE MODEL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
As we face more and more complex issues of international scale, both in Europe and beyond, we require innovative problem-solving strategies, as well as new sets of skills and competences. It is only natural, then, for the public:START consortium to engage with institutions where innovation is fostered. Thus, besides the private and public sector representatives, we were happy to welcome to our event Dr. Danilo Bordini from Viraschutz, an Italian R&D centre with a focus on protecting people by preventing infections.
All those environments where people live, work, study or recover have a common problem: the spread of microorganisms which cause too often infections and diseases. The common way to face this important issue is no longer sustainable due to high prices and the great amount of chemical waste, especially for those sectors which are most sensible to this problem, such as healthcare. Like all brilliant solutions, Viraschutz’s response to this complex scenario came from a paradigm shift: from preventing the spread of bacteria proliferation to preventing the presence of bacteria in the first place. By pursuing the aim of Viraschutz, “protecting people and safeguarding the environment”, the R&D centre is the first to provide a permanent prevention against the spread of infections and to slash the use of chemical products. This is made possible thanks to an innovative, patented technology which creates a long lasting coating which maintains indoor spaces completely free from bacteria for 3 months with a 99.99% antimicrobial residual efficacy.
We can say that Viraschutz’s success story was driven by two main factors: a great scientific effort applied to a pressing practical issue, and a change of perspective to identify new solutions to complex problems. Dr. Bordini’s presentation was both an inspiration and an encouragement for the public:START project team to carry on their work to help the public sector to fully develop their innovation potential and the skills to implement solutions in a proactive, cooperative and risk-taking manner.
