Québec

The Emilia-Romagna Region and Québec will sign a Cooperation Agreement in 2023 to support initiatives mainly in the fields of culture, science, economic development and education. The activities and projects initiated or encouraged by the Parties under this Agreement are aimed at exchanging knowledge and experience. They are based on the development of partnerships between institutions and their networks and between public and private economic players in order to promote sustainable economic, environmental, cultural and social development.

Since 2019, the Emilia-Romagna Region, in collaboration with the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada (Montréal), has supported the organisation of the Italy-Canada Business Forum on Artificial Intelligence (AI). This has been an opportunity for the Emilia-Romagna innovation ecosystem to discuss with the Québec ecosystem, which has globally recognised AI centres of excellence (MILA, IVADO, IVADO LABS, SCALE AI).

The success of the first edition (held in person) in 2019 showed that the landscape for the application of AI solutions in Italy and Québec certainly presents plenty of potential synergies and opportunities for collaborations, technology transfer and research projects. This is why in 2020, the Region, ART-ER and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada (ICCC) decided to give continuity and impetus to this activity, even if the global situation was marked by the pandemic. Therefore, they continued to bring together Canadian and Italian AI stakeholders, universities, research centres, SMEs, start-ups and large companies, along with expert speakers and panellists, albeit online. The selection of the topics and the composition of the plenary sessions were decided on the basis of regional priorities and with the aim of enhancing local expertise and experience. The selected topics were: life sciences, healthcare, logistics, Industry 4.0 and Smart Mobility.

The third edition of the Italy-Canada Forum on Artificial Intelligence in 2021 promoted dialogue between the Québec Province and Emilia-Romagna on the role of artificial intelligence and sustainable development as accelerators of innovation and green transition, particularly in the key sectors of health, energy, mobility and circular economy.

Over time, the Italy-Canada AI Forum has gained increasing visibility and prominence at the international level, so much so that it has received direct institutional support from the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The 2022 edition focused on the role of AI in cybersecurity, a topic of great relevance to the current international situation and of vital importance to several key sectors and areas: critical infrastructure security, energy, health, space and defence, business and end consumers. The Forum was also an opportunity for Emilia-Romagna and Québec to talk about the scarcity of skills needed to cope with the danger of cyber attacks and the need for greater collaboration. Québec and Emilia-Romagna shared the policies they are implementing to encourage the creation of university programmes to train cybersecurity experts and strategies to address the shortage of these professionals in the coming years, with the intention of intensifying collaboration in this area as well. The next edition of the AI Forum in 2023 is expected to address the topic of AI applications in aerospace.

In the framework of the MadeInER – Canada 2020-2021 project several analysis, promotion and branding activities were carried out that confirmed:

• the constant and growing development of e-commerce
• the gradual repositioning of the Horeca channel and the consolidation of business models linked to the food delivery industry
• the prevalence of new generations of consumers who require the adoption of new models of communication and education on conscious consumption and who base their purchasing choices on certain guiding criteria (e.g. sustainability).

With this in mind, together with ART-ER, Unioncamere and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada, the Emilia-Romagna Region set up the new #MadeinER-Canada 2022 programme for the promotion of products made in Emilia-Romagna. The focus is on the new trade channel of food box delivery, building on the partnerships established in the previous programmes. The promoters of the programme organised a Food Box Delivery launch event in the presence of Canadian influencers and media, carried out promotion activities and targeted communication campaigns through the “Wine&Travel Italy” platform, as well as promotional campaigns on the digital platforms of the project partners.

The visit to Montréal from 8 to 11 June 2022 was part of this programme. It was aimed at consolidating the institutional relations initiated in previous years, as well as at exploring further collaborations with other players in the sector.

• Italy-Canada Business Forum on Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Participation in trade fairs in fields of mutual interest
• Cooperation in the framework of Food ER