Rome’s Ostiense District Becomes Home to “ROAD – Rome Advanced District” for Cutting-Edge Energy Solutions

Rome’s Ostiense District Becomes Home to “ROAD – Rome Advanced District” for Cutting-Edge Energy Solutions

(IN BRIEF) “ROAD – Rome Advanced District” has been launched, forming a network of companies including Eni, Acea, Autostrade per l’Italia, Bridgestone, Cisco, Gruppo FS, and NextChem (MAIRE). The project aims to create a technological innovation district in Rome’s Ostiense district, focused on developing new energy supply chains and fostering collaborative research. The Gasometer facility, owned by Eni, will serve as the hub for the project. ROAD’s goals include promoting innovative projects, establishing supply chain collaborations, utilizing the facility as a “living lab” for testing emerging technologies, attracting talent, and developing new professions. The network will focus on various areas, including decarbonization, circular economy, energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, smart cities, and health and safety. ROAD plans to develop a model for future energy districts and will initially focus on road paving improvements. The project aims to transform the area into a national reference point for new energies, contributing to the goals of Agenda 2030.

(PRESS RELEASE) ROME, 18-May-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — Eni S.p.A. (BIT: ENI), an Italian multinational energy company with focus on innovation, efficiency and accessibility for all, announces that the “ROAD – Rome Advanced District,” a collaborative network of companies comprising Eni, Acea, Autostrade per l’Italia, Bridgestone, Cisco, Gruppo FS, and NextChem (MAIRE), is officially launched today. The project, located at the Gasometer facility in the Ostiense district of Rome, aims to establish the first technological innovation district dedicated to developing new energy supply chains, fostering industrial and academic research collaborations.

The Gasometer in Ostiense, a historically and industrially significant building complex owned by Eni, spans approximately 13 hectares and is currently undergoing redevelopment and remediation. The site is already home to the Joule Business School, Eni’s research laboratories, and the ZERO accelerator, which supports clean tech start-ups funded by the CDP National Network.

The objectives of the ROAD network are as follows:

1. To develop, promote, and accelerate innovative projects and scientific, industrial, and technological research.
2. To establish supply chain collaborations among companies’ R&D departments, universities, research centers, start-ups, and innovative SMEs in the fields of energy and digital transition technologies.
3. To utilize the Ostiense asset as a “living lab” for experimenting with emerging technologies that support urban communities.
4. To attract and train talent for the development of new professions.

The impact areas of the network will encompass decarbonization technologies, circular economy practices (water and waste management), energy efficiency and storage, sustainable mobility, smart cities, and health and safety promotion. ROAD’s goals also include developing a model for future energy districts, starting with an analysis of sustainable mobility and smart city features.

The first collaborative tool developed by ROAD will be a metaverse environment—a digital twin—through which existing projects will be combined with future visions to design optimal solutions for supporting urban communities.

All co-founders of ROAD will contribute their expertise to the development and acceleration of industrial supply chains. Initial efforts will focus on monitoring and improving road paving by bringing together technologies from the transport, chemistry, and IT sectors to propose innovative solutions.

The activities of ROAD will revolve around research and development of new materials, collection methods, and material reuse. The network will also study and test new digital solutions that pave the way for increasingly sustainable mobility.

In addition to research collaborations, ROAD will establish training programs to enhance the skills of partner companies, promote internal co-innovation, test integrated mobility solutions using the Ostiense asset, and establish a joint observatory on labor market transformation related to these newly developed supply chains.

By transforming an area that historically powered industrial Rome into a hub for technological innovation, ROAD aims to support companies in achieving the goals of Agenda 2030 and become a national reference point for new energies.

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SOURCE: Eni S.p.A.