The Milano Innovation District (MIND) is best known as one of Italy’s most ambitious urban regeneration projects. After hosting Expo in 2015, the one million square metre site on the city’s north-western outskirts sat in limbo before local public firm group Arexpo, which owns the site, and multinational real estate developer Lendlease began transforming the area into a mixed-use residential, commercial and research district. 

MIND’s reputation as a real estate project is now being outstripped by the presence of its growing number of life science tenants, with the district central to Milan’s ambition to expand its innovation capacity in the field. 

Giuseppe Banfi is MIND’s scientific ambassador and the scientific director of Ospedale Galeazzi-Sant’Ambrogio, the campus’s research and treatment hospital, which opened in 2022. He talks to fDi about making the ambition a reality.

Q: How have you seen Milan’s life science talent and ecosystem grow over the past two decades? 

A: It has grown significantly, thanks to the presence of great research institutes and hospitals that conduct a huge amount of scientific activity, and the universities present in our city. Clearly, Milan is better known for artistic activities, such as fashion and the Salone del Mobile international furniture fair. But at my hospital, and many of the city’s other hospitals, around half the patients come from different regions in Italy. Behind this excellent clinical activity there is very good scientific activity, and the ability of Milan’s research institutes and universities to produce science and innovation in recent years has grown enormously. 

Q: How important is MIND in accelerating this growth? 

A: It’s very important because it’s a concentration of everything needed to grow life sciences — namely, the University of Milan’s new science campus, research institutions, and industry. This concentration of both the scientific environment and industrial environment is a model present in other nations. But MIND is perhaps the first example of this model in Italy [for life sciences].

Q: How important are foreign firms and individuals in helping the city reach its life sciences potential?

A: They are essential. To grow MIND and Milan life sciences more broadly, of course we need Italian industry, universities and scientific studies. But we also need funding, and while venture capital is increasing in Italy, it is certainly stronger in other European countries and clearly so in the US. We also need to bring more small, medium and large foreign businesses to MIND, and the city of Milan generally.  

Some are already here in MIND, for example AstraZeneca. However, growing their presence is fundamental to obtain the training and education on technology transfer that Italy needs. This is more likely to be done effectively by foreigners who are accustomed to, and have a culture that better recognises, this cooperation between science and the commercial world.  

We have lots of contact with different countries and visiting delegations, so the MIND model is creating interest. Human Technopole is very important because it attracts young scientists and researchers from 36 countries. We need to do the same thing  with industry. 

Q: Do you believe Milan can become known as a top European centre for life sciences innovation? 

A: Well, certainly it won’t be easy, but I believe the answer is yes. Clearly there isn’t the same culture that you see in Cambridge and other European life sciences cities — but we have all the necessary skills and professionalism. Perhaps the biggest difficulty, one often encountered in our country, is that it’s not always easy getting people to collaborate. It means this agenda can perhaps be better advanced within MIND, where there is a concentration of the various players.

In this sense, we are more similar to Cambridge’s model, rather than the science park in Paris and Barcelona, for example. Either way, clearly these places have a greater life sciences tradition and funding. However, I believe that the skills, resourcefulness and professionalism of Milan’s scientists and industries mean it can perform at a similar level to these other cities, even if they have a longer-standing life sciences tradition. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity

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This article is part of the Special Report:
Milan’s life sciences ascent
Read more articles from the report