How to turn a great idea into a company. Often initiative and a skilled background are not enough. It needs someone who believes in their goal, who will pursue it every day, but it also needs dedicated infrastructures and technical support so that the necessary checks can be carried out to ensure the business project starts on a sound footing.

This is the objective of Bi-Cube, the business incubator strongly supported by the Basilicata region , offered by Basilicata Innovazione and presented this morning in the Basilicata region's Sala Verrastro by the chairman of the Council, Vito De Filippo, by the regional councillor for Production Activities, Erminio Restaino, by the chairman of AREA Science Park, Giancarlo Michellone and by the director of the Basilicata Innovazione project, Paolo Cattapan.

The service aims to support anyone with an innovative idea. It consists of an incubation model that mirrors the successful methodology of Innovation Factory (Trieste's 'first mile' incubator) and, at the same time, indicates the path to follow in order to set up a successful and high-potential company: from the business dream to the business plan; in short, from the fine tuning of the entrepreneurial project (pre-incubation) to the verification of the financial viability and operational feasibility for launching a start-up onto the market. Giving impetus to an innovative idea and supporting businesses along their planned course.

Young entrepreneurs and workgroups will thus be given the opportunity to bring their innovative ideas to fruition and will be supported along the way from the initial abstract concept right through to its realisation. "Basilicata has all the components for playing a leading role in getting out of the financial crisis, but we must be able to support local people who are trying to create initiatives in a region where it cannot be said there is a widespread business culture, and that's why Basilicata Innovazione's business incubator mission is strategically so important." In this way Vito De Filippo, Chairman of the Region, explains the importance of 'Bi-Cube'.

"In too many cases," added De Filippo, "it has been the ideas and skills of many young people from Basilicata, and the south in general, that have been behind the success of the business system in the north, which succeeded in attracting and nurturing them. Our objective now is to give our young people the necessary support in the business culture and environment so that their abilities can lead them to achieve success at home and to offer their local area the opportunity for growth, development and employment for others."

For the regional councillor for Production Activities, Erminio Restaino, "Our production system today is firmly focussed on new process models capable of making the area and Basilicata more competitive from both a national and international perspective. The journey that began some time ago with Basilicata Innovazione, aimed at providing support for local entrepreneurs," he added, "is being intensified today with the Bi Cube incubator. The idea of supporting research and with it the drivers of development, guiding them along their innovative path, is a very important factor because it provides new opportunities for local people and gives Basilicata another driving force for growth."

"The capacity to create new business and achieve innovation over the coming years," said Giancarlo Michellone, "will depend on the ability to anticipate, and increasingly to grasp ideas and insights from research. The real challenge to be met," he went on, "is to find an innovative idea, one that is revolutionary rather than evolutionary, before anyone else does. This is what we are experimenting with successfully in Friuli Venezia Giulia with Innovation Factory, AREA's incubator, and we are certain that we can replicate it for the benefit of Basilicata."

"We want to maximise the innovative ideas of potential Basilicata entrepreneurs," commented Paolo Cattapan, "and make the Basilicata area more fertile by delivering, through Basilicata Innovazione, winning results that will support competitiveness."