Research and development between Italy and Canada

Agreements will increase science and technology co-operation, even aerospace

Italy and Canada have stepped up their scientific co-operation by signing a series of agreements on research and development. Italy's minister for Education and Research Letizia Moratti and Canada's minister of Foreign Trade Jim Peterson signed the deal in Ottawa.
"Aware of the positive contribution in promoting bilateral and international co-operation," reads a joint communiqué, "Ministers Moratti and Peterson intend to develop further bonds of friendship and bilateral relations in science and technology."
Both ministers underscored that the purpose of the memorandum of understanding is to encourage increased co-operation between various research agencies on the basis of reciprocity of commitments and benefits. They also highlighted the current state of co-operation in sectors such as aerospace, nanotech, life sciences, information and communication technologies, and advanced manufacturing technologies.
The existing relations have led to a number of specific agreements.

Aerospace
The Memorandum of Understanding marks the beginning of a formal collaboration between the two space agencies in the field of Earth Observation. The document identifies several issues where co-operation will be developed through further agreements. In particular, these include a joint mission in a strongly innovative field, hyperspectral observation, that will multiply the quantity of information that can be obtained from satellite images, with obvious benefits in numerous fields of application. The mission will also have significant industrial interest, both in terms of developing intellectual property and know-how and of financial resources (the mission should cost about €200 million).

Multisector
Agreement between National Research Council Canada and Italy's Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. The agreement signals renewed attention between the two Councils, following a long period of relative stasis, and offers a reference framework to the agreements on nanotechnologies (between the Institute for Microstructural Sciences and Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia) and biotechnologies (between Institute of Biodiagnostics and CNR's Istituto di Fisiologia in Pisa).

Life sciences
A joint research program between CNR's Istituto Clinico di Fisiologia (Pisa) and the NRC's Institute of Biodiagnostics (Winnipeg). The agreement concerns the development of biological and technological research applied to cardiology.
Another agreement concerns the Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology (MICB, Winnipeg) and CNR's Istituto di Biologia Cellulare, European Mouse Mutant Archive (CNR-IBC, Monterotondo). This agreement deals with the development of network infrastructures and a joint laboratory for studying complex diseases via post-genomic functional analysis of mice.
Three agreements deal with the creation of joint laboratories between Canadian and Italian institutions. The first is between the Montreal Neurological Institute (McGill University) and Istituto di Genetica e Biofisica "Adriano Buzzati Traverso" (CNR).
The second between the Biomedical Research Centre - University of British Columbia and the Department of Oncology, Biology and Genetics, University of Genoa; the third is a joint research program involving the Molecular Medicine Program - Ottawa Health Research Institute and the Stem Cell Research Institute, Dibit, Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan.
Another deal between the Elettra synchrotron and the Canadian Light Source - a Canadian synchrotron that opened in late 2004 - aims to create a joint multidisciplinary laboratory in the field of Life Science Imaging.
There are also three agreements on nanotechnologies, two on the study of complex diseases (e.g. cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, etc.) through genetic analysis of populations that spent many generations in relative isolation. Both these agreements focus on the development of computational statistics methods (bioinformatics). The latter is particularly focused on the study of schizophrenia.


Italy's initiatives with Ontario
Moratti and Cordiano move beyond bilateral agreements

By Francesco Riondino

Few words, some concrete facts: this was the spirit of the recent meeting in Toronto between Ontario minister of Economic Development Joe Cordiano and Italy's minister of Education, University and Research Letizia Moratti. "We've laid the foundations for interventions on a small number of extremely important sectors: life sciences (biotechnologies, biochemistry, research in hospitals and corporations) and auto parts," explained minister Cordiano.
In particular, in September the Medical and Related Sciences (MaRS) Discovery District will officially open in Toronto, becoming Canada's most important biomedical research centre. "We've invited minister Moratti to be with us on that occasion," continued Cordiano, who's told his department staff to work with their Italian counterparts on a series of initiatives that should materialize next year.
In the fall, a mission of Italian auto parts manufacturers will visit Ontario. Cordiano said, "Minister Moratti pledged to send along representatives of the research community for this sector." Italian research centres - both public and private - are at the forefront in the field of new materials, the same where most of Ontario's research is concentrating.
"While in the Eighties and Nineties we did a lot of work via twinnings and territorial bilateral agreements, nowadays attention is focused on sectors of excellence," remarked Cordiano. "My conversations with Minister Moratti, an extremely competent and concrete person, delved on what we can do together to benefit the Ontario and Italy economies."
In the coming months, the two Ministries will work in close contact; some news could be forthcoming even before the end of this year.

Publication Date: 2005-06-19
Story Location: http://www.tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=5292