The tenth edition of the Confindustria Enterprises for Innovation (IxI) Award has launched, with the aim of officially recognising Italian companies that seek to stand out and strengthen their competitive capabilities by leveraging their level of innovation—not limited to products and processes, but also enhancing the organisation and culture of the company itself.

The Award is distinguished by being the first innovation award in Europe to adopt the parameters of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), a model of excellence that is tried, tested, and internationally recognised. The Award benefits from the invaluable collaboration of experts in the fields of Research and Innovation and Finance for Research and Innovation, provided free of charge by the Award's partners and participating companies.

The experience of recent years has shown that companies that have taken on board the insights gained from this process have truly grown, providing concrete proof that investment in R&I is profitable in the medium term and capable of generating a virtuous cycle of consolidating results and planning for future scenarios. This is confirmed by the fact that the Award attracts many new companies, as well as many that participate in subsequent editions to assess their level of growth compared to previous years.

ELIGIBILITY

The Award is open to all companies producing goods and services with operational headquarters in Italy, divided into four distinct categories:

- Companies with more than 1,500 employees

- Companies with between 251 and 1,500 employees

- Companies with between 51 and 250 employees

- Companies with 50 employees or fewer

In accordance with the regulations, companies that have won an Award in the IxI competition during the last two editions are not eligible to participate.

The process involves:

- completing the registration form and privacy notice in full

- completing both sections (A and B) of the Questionnaire

- completing the guided Application available on the portal and sending it to the email address premioixi@confindustria.it, ensuring that a confirmation of receipt is received from Confindustria

- the option to complete the Industry 4.0 and Corporate Social Responsibility Questionnaire to compete for the special mentions available

The deadline for completing the questionnaire and the guided application is 30 September 2018.

Through the IxI Award, Confindustria participates in the National Innovation Award in the Industry and Services category, which will be presented to the top 9 IxI award-winning companies (6 in the small and medium-sized enterprise category, 3 in the large enterprise category).

The National Innovation Award - Award of Awards is an initiative of the Italian Government promoted by the Prime Ministerial Decree of 7 April 2008, which established the National Innovation Day. The Award is instituted, under the mandate of the President of the Italian Republic, at the COTEC Foundation for Technological Innovation. The objective of the Award is to promote and support the best innovative and creative capabilities of companies, universities, public administrations, organisations, or individual inventors, with the aim of fostering a culture of innovation within the country.

Further information is available at http://www.confindustria.it/Aree/PremioIxI2018.htm or by emailing premioixi@confindustria.it

Attachments

• ApplicationGuidata 2018.pdf
• IxI 2018_questionnaire_completion_methods.pdf
• Guidelines_and_best_practices_2018_ed.pdf
• Questionnaire_section-A_2018.pdf
• Questionnaire_section-B_2018.pdf
• Regulations_2018.pdf