CONFINDUSTRIA TOSCANA

Confindustria is the main Italian Industry Confederation, grouping together more than 113,000 companies, accounting more than 4,000,000 employees.

Confindustria Toscana is the regional branch in Tuscany, providing support to its 5000 Tuscany enterprises with the aim to contribute, together with the local political, social and cultural organisations, to the business growth and the social progress of the territory. It represents and safeguards interests of the Tuscan enterprises in all matters regarding legislative and administrative regional laws, as well as national and European issues.

Confindustria Toscana, as member of the Enterprise Europe Network, is specialised in promoting and enhancing services on all the aspects related to Innovation and Internationalisation.

The area is characterised by a huge number of micro and small enterprises with fewer medium and large enterprises. The typical Made In Italy sectors are very strong but also other high technological sectors are represented:
- FASHION and luxury (including textile, leather, clothing, footwear, jewellery and goldsmiths)
- FOOD and beverage
- FURNITURE
- MECHANICAL (including Automotive and Nautical)
- LIFE SCIENCES,
- ICT, photonics and robotics,
- Aerospace,
- Tourism.

Large companies even if limited have a leadership role in the international market such as for Jewellery and Goldsmiths (UnoaErre), for fashion (Gucci, Prada, Ferragamo, Celine, Chanel, Dior,..), for Life Science (Eli Lilly, Menarini, Novartis, Biomerieux), aerospace (Sitael, Ids, Thales), Automotive (Hitachi Rail, Piaggio), chemical (Solvay), ICT and robotics (Selex, Tales, Galileo), Mechanical (GE Oil&Gas), for Nautical (Benetti), for Textile (the Prato district).

It is closely linked with all the main research organisations established in Tuscany, that together cover all sectors:

Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna https://www.santannapisa.it/en/university/institutes
Università di Firenze https://www.unifi.it/
Università di Pisa https://www.unipi.it/index.php/english
Università di Siena https://en.unisi.it/
CNR - Firenze https://www.area.fi.cnr.it/index.php/en/
CNR - Pisa http://www.area.pi.cnr.it/

In particular Confindustria Toscana works hard on promoting the innovation in SMEs, supporting them in developing their Innovation capacities; it helps enterprises in highlighting their needs and gaps to enhance their competitiveness, with the help of experts in different fields, supporting them in designing and planning projects suitable to realize the changes necessary, as well as defining, when necessary, professional training.
Confindustria Toscana is promoting different projects to enhance Tuscan industries competitiveness. With the help of IPR attorney it is carrying out formative meetings with enterprises to spread IPR value. As member of the Enterprise Europe Network, its daily work is supporting enterprises in accessing European opportunities (international collaborations, joining EU projects, internationalization). Through a strong collaboration with the Tuscan Life Science cluster, it has performed many different initiatives to stimulate this sector’s growth. With the Tuscan Universities and research centers, it works to build the connection between researchers and enterprises.