Donata Folesani Email & Phone Number

Bologna, Italia

Responsabile dell’Unità Finanza per l'innovazione e Proprietà Intellettuale nella Divisione Ricerca e Innovazione di ART-ER. L’Unità svolge attività di informazione e supporto e sviluppa progettualità, sia in ambito regionale che nazionale e internazionale, relativamente a: capitali e finanza per l’avvio e lo sviluppo di impresa, investor readiness e relazioni con gli investitori, tutela e gestione delle conoscenze e della proprietà intellettuale nel trasferimento tecnologico e nelle relazioni scienza-industria.

Bologna, Italy

She has started working in ASTER - consortium company of Emilia-Romagna Region for innovation and technology transfer - in 1991, dealing with European programmes and schemes. She is currently Head of Access to Finance and Intellectual Property Unit in the Research and Innovation Division of ART-ER - the new company established in May 2019 from the merger of ASTER and ERVET. The Unit carries out information and support activities and develops projects, both at regional and national and international level, concerning: start-ups and SMEs access to finance, investor readiness and investor relations, protection and management of knowledge and intellectual property in technology transfer and in science-industry collaboration.She is an expert evaluator for the European Commission and for regional and local institutions in terms of supporting innovation and innovative business creation.She is a member of KIC Raw Material Intellectual Property Committee - https://eitrawmaterials.eu/ - and member of the European Intellectual Property Helpdesk Ambassadors team (https://www.iprhelpdesk.eu/ambassador).

She has been in ASTER since 1991, after her degree in law and a master in project management and auditing. At the moment she is manager of Intellectual Property and Finance for Innovation Departments. Since 2013 she has been one of the 4 Italian EU IPR Helpdesk Ambassadors, a cooperation scheme set up by the European IPR Helpdesk within the Enterprise Europe network, aimed at providing first line IP advice and support for SMEs and researchers at local level (https://www.iprhelpdesk.eu/ambassadorsteam). She is co-author of the agreement models published by ASTER (with comments and guidelines for non-IP experts) for the research collaboration, IP and knowledge transfer.In Finance for Innovation dept. Donata is responsible for information and advice concerning financial instruments for industrial research, innovation and technology transfer, coordinator of FINANCER platform - financer.aster.it, the Emilia-Romagna finance Market place for Innovation and Growth - and of the “Investor ready” advice service addressed to startups and SMEs. She is also member of “BAN Bologna evaluation committee”, a regional business angels network. Since 2011 she has been project manager of “Ingenium II info point”, dedicated to Venture Capital fund co-financed by Emilia-Romagna Region. From 2000 to 2013 she has been project manager of the help desk hosted in the University of Bologna area, in the framework of the Spinner programme (European Social Fund Global Grant) supporting spin-off creation and technology transfer projects, as well as regional coordinator of Pilot Action “Women, Technology, Innovation”.She has been an invited expert of EU DG Research and Evaluator as Independent expert in R&D Framework Programme, providing also technical assistance for the evaluation of proposals and business plans submitted in Emilia-Romagna regional supporting schemes. Her mother tongue is Italian and she is fluent in English and French.