The award ceremony for the winners of the "Intellectual Property Award (IPA)" 2023 competition took place on the occasion of the celebrations for the 140th anniversary of the birth of the Italian Patent and Trademark Office of the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy. The initiative, conceived and organized by the Ministry in collaboration with NETVAL and Invitalia to celebrate the excellence of Italian research and innovation, rewards the best patents of public research in six technological fields: Med tech, Climatech, Agritech, The Energy of the Future, The Future from the Space, The Future of the City.

As part of the competition, which saw 225 applications, the special "Female Entrepreneurship" award was also assigned, in favor of the best patents, one for each of the six technological fields, promoted by research groups composed of at least 50% women and/or having a woman as principal investigator. The award, which is part of the Program "Actions for the diffusion of culture and female entrepreneurial training" and is financed with resources from the PNRR, was assigned, for the Climatech area, to the working group of Prof. Elza Bontempi, with the patent dedicated to the "Method of recovery of materials from waste or scraps through improved carbothermic process". The patent was filed in joint ownership between UNIBS and INSTM.

The motivation for assigning the award states that this patent represents a fundamental step towards sustainability, as the proposed technology offers an alternative to the need for mining, thus avoiding the costs and dangers associated with working in difficult conditions. In an era where the energy transition is crucial for our future, this innovation facilitates a circular and sustainable approach that is essential to achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The award ceremony for the finalist patents, chosen by a special commission composed of industry experts, entrepreneurs and industrial property specialists, took place in the presence of Deputy Minister Valentino Valentini, Head of the Department for Business Policies Amedeo Teti, President of Netval Giuseppe Conti, Directors of the Ministry and Invitalia and the President of the Comitato Impresa Donna.

The professor emphasizes that the important result achieved was achieved thanks to the work of the PhD students and researchers of the Laboratory of Chemistry for Technologies and the support of the funders of this research activity: Fondazione Cariplo, MITO Technology, PNRR (MICS-Made in Italy Circolare e Sostenibile project), and CSMT.