ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment is a public undertaking operating in the fields of energy, the environment and new technologies to support competitiveness and sustainable development.
ENEA is mainly called upon:
- to promote and carry out basic and applied research and innovation technology activities, also through prototypes and product industrialization;
- to disseminate and transfer technologies, encouraging their use in productive and social sectors;
- to provide high-tech services, studies, tests and evaluations to both public and private bodies and enterprises.
To these aims and in the sectors falling within its areas of competence, ENEA:
- carries out complex research, development and demonstration projects, mainly technology and engineering — based, sets up and operates major scientific apparatuses;
- assesses the level of advanced technologies development, as well as their economic and social impacts, also on demand by public administrations;
- promotes collaboration with foreign bodies and istitutions, also for defining technical regulations and participation to major research programmes and international organizations, providing its (specific)expertise;
- promotes, fosters and supports innovation technology processes in the national production system, especially in small and medium — sized enterprises;
- collaborates with regions and local administrations to promote productive development of local resources, through joint actions;
- promotes technical and professional training and competency of researchers, also through ad-hoc agreements with national and international universities.