The last mile of the RESTART Programme starts in Naples and aims at the future of Telecommunications
Dissemination, concrete results and permanent structural changes: these are the keywords that will mark the last six months of the RESTART project – RESearch and Innovation on future Telecommunications systems and networks, to make Italy more smART, the most important public research and development programme ever carried out in Italy in the Telecommunications sector, funded with 116 million euros by the European Union – NextGenerationEU within the framework of the PNRR.
On June 30th and July 1st 2025, the Aula Magna of the Scuola Politecnica e delle Scienze di Based dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II hosted the RESTART Plenary Dissemination Workshop, the six-monthly event that has been bringing together the national telecommunications community for six editions now, for an opportunity for discussion and openness to citizenship.
The title chosen for the workshop – Hands-On with the Future of Telecommunications – eloquently illustrates the objective of this edition, conceived to be ‘not just a conference, but a real live demo’, as the organiser of the event – Professor Daniele Riccio of the Federico II University – emphasised when opening the proceedings and explaining how “Telecommunications can, through intrinsic and indispensable continuous innovation, help us make the world around us better, providing science and enabling technologies for countless sectors (personal communications, modern industrialisation, Planet monitoring, telemedicine, etc.). With RESTART, Telecommunications research involves and trains a new generation of young people capable of innovation. On this basis, Telecommunications now concretely becomes, for skills and researchers now actually available, a key economic asset in which to invest‘.
The more than 370 registered participants were able to attend 14 TED-style talks on the most promising topics for the industry, follow 10 live presentations of the more than 100 Demos and Proof Concepts developed by the research projects in the programme’s laboratories and featured in an interactive Exhibition Space. Here it was possible to experience first-hand the technologies of the future, which also competed in a real competition for the Best Project Contribution, through a peer-to-peer voting system. A Panel on the Future of Telecommunications, interviews with the protagonists, and working committee meetings rounded out the rich programme of the event, which enjoyed the sponsorship of two companies: MeasureIT and Allbesmart
Introducing the first day of work, RESTART Foundation President Professor Nicola Blefari Melazzi wanted to recall where RESTART started from, namely the telecommunications crisis, tracing very clearly the path towards which the programme is pointing in order to leave a significant impact: ‘We must innovate in those spaces that have been left uncovered and that hyperscalers have occupied, causing classic operators to chase the ideas brought by others’. The President then emphasised that ‘the transformative part of RESTART is its transversality, capable of bringing real change to the organisation of the country, through structural changes that will last. This is the case with the laboratories and infrastructures that the programme has been able to create, the several hundred people who carry out research and the way it is conducted, and the training of a new generation of researchers that is far more numerous than the previous one. Structural, transformative, horizontal changes.”
These are important goals, which can be achieved thanks to the significant results produced by RESTART. It is, however, necessary that what has been achieved so far is valorised and made available to the community, not only the scientific community. ‘The experiments and demonstrations of the 32 RESTART projects are results that concretely exemplify the impact that this type of research can produce,’ points out Professor Antonio Capone, scientific coordinator of the programme, emphasising that “scientific research carried out in this way, in direct contact with companies, can produce results that can then be translated into the potential development of products and services, paving the way for the professional future of the young researchers recruited over the past three years by RESTART.”
Not only results, but also future prospects for a sector that “is experiencing a profound crisis due to market dynamics and the type of competition that can be observed at international level”, continues Antonio Capone, inviting political stakeholders ‘to understand which is the best way to achieve the future of the telecommunications ecosystem capable of making Europe and Italy regain competitiveness at international level.” In this context, RESTART has played a key role, demonstrating the enormous potential and great skills that the Italian scientific community possesses, qualities that it is essential to continue to enhance.
Un programma in continuo avanzamento, anche dal punto di vista della spesa: è stato infatti rendicontato “quasi il 53% dei fondi ministeriali, per un totale di oltre 60 milioni di contributo” come sottolinea Adele Del Bello, Direttrice Generale della Fondazione RESTART e Program Manager. Un progresso non solo per quanto riguarda la spesa, ma anche per l’ampliamento della comunità scientifica e imprenditoriale, “ad oggi abbiamo 130 partner, di cui 27 originariamente entrati in RESTART e altri 103 reclutati attraverso i Bandi a Cascata” prosegue la Dott.ssa Del Bello “di questi 103 partner entrati con i bandi a cascata, ben 67 sono imprese, di piccole, medie e grandi dimensioni, a testimonianza della rilevanza che il programma ha assunto nel settore industriale”. Un dato degno di nota è anche quello che riguarda il reclutamento di ricercatori e ricercatrici: ad oggi il programma ha assunto ben 406 giovani ricercatori, tra dottorandi, RTDa, assegnisti e contrattisti di diversa tipologia, di cui il 34% di genere femminile. “Questo per noi è un dato particolarmente importante, perché si inserisce in un settore, quello delle Telecomunicazioni, che in passato è sempre stato prettamente maschile. Invertire la rotta è uno degli obiettivi principali del PNRR” conclude la Direttrice Generale.
A programme that is making steady progress, also in terms of expenditure: in fact, ‘almost 53% of the ministerial funds have been accounted for, for a total of over 60 million in contributions’, as Adele Del Bello, Director General of the RESTART Foundation and Programme Manager, emphasises. Progress has been made not only in terms of expenditure, but also in expanding the scientific and business community, ‘to date we have 130 partners, 27 of which originally joined RESTART and a further 103 recruited through the Cascade Calls,’ continues Dr. Del Bello, “of these 103 partners who joined through the Cascade Calls, as many as 67 are companies, of small, medium and large size, testifying to the relevance of the programme in the industrial sector.” A noteworthy figure is also that concerning the recruitment of male and female researchers: to date, the programme has recruited no less than 406 young researchers, including PhD students, RTDs, research fellows and contractors of various types, 34% of whom are female. “This is a particularly important figure for us, because it is part of a sector, that of telecommunications, which in the past has always been predominantly male. Reversing this trend is one of the main objectives of the NRRP,’ concludes the Director General.
The morning of 2 July was dedicated precisely to young male and female researchers with the Build your research career in telecommunications event, an open discussion on the professional opportunities of the resources that will make up the future research and development class of the sector. An innovative and original format, introduced by a speech by Stefano Mainetti, entrepreneur, manager and lecturer at the Milan Polytechnic, and continued with three interactive panels. The first saw some of the young researchers present confront each other in a round table discussion on doubts, perplexities and ambitions concerning their professional future. The second and third panels, on the other hand, offered an insider’s perspective of those who have already gained experience in the working world, respectively in academia or industry. The more than 100 participants were able to actively participate throughout the event, thanks to a live question-and-answer system, which allowed them to offer interesting insights into the debate and actually become co-creators of the day’s programme.
The last mile of the RESTART Programme therefore begins in Naples, which opens a path made up of activities to disseminate and consolidate the results obtained and will conclude with a plenary event in December to give back and share, oriented towards setting the course for the future of telecommunications.
Rewatch the recording of the two days of the event: