Monday 14 October saw the start of the 4th edition of Impact Prototypes Labs – IP Labs, the collective learning programme realised by the Cottino Social Impact Campus, addressed to enterprises from Turin and its Province and to students of the Politecnico di Torino and Università degli Studi di Torino. This was the first training session, an opportunity for learning, exchange and comparison for the 23 selected enterprises together with the 90 students, tutors from the Cottino Social Impact Campus and CeVIS, the Centre of Competence for Impact Measurement and Evaluation, born from a strategic agreement between the Cottino Foundation and the Turin Chamber of Commerce, Turin Social Impact.

The companies represent a cross-section of Piedmont’s entrepreneurial fabric, with SMEs and large groups involved in the engineering, manufacturing, food industry, industrial automation, ICT and social enterprise, bringing to IP Labs crucial challenges to innovate and evolve towards social impact. In addition to companies participating in IP Labs for the first time, there are also companies that have chosen to continue the work started in the last edition. The companies participating in the 4th edition of the project are: Archibuzz, Beats, Belmonte, Codex, COESA, Diciannove Soc. Coop., Dual Sanitaly, Greenmar, Gruppo GVS, I.T.G., Infra.To, Marcopolo, Mercato Itinerante, Overlab, R.C.A. Imballaggi Flessibili, Samsic Italia, Sistemi 2 Visione, Specialinsert, Sport Innovation Hub APS, Telecontrol Vigilanza, Ultraspazio, Vasté impresa sociale, WECO impresa sociale.

The systemic project will allow them to analyse their starting situation, identify and imagine new opportunities, acquire new skills and tools to plan, manage and measure impact: a collective learning process in which the work of trainers and tutors is decisive for the company’s impact strategy, and the young students are entrusted with the task of bringing their vision of the world, in an intergenerational exchange and cultural transformation of great value. 

The IP Labs programme will end on February 2025 with the Impact Day, which will aim to give space to the companies and the student teams to present the result of the work carried out during the course and the impact strategies that the companies will have been able to formalise thanks to the Cottino Social Impact Campus training, the work of the CeVIS tutors and the experience shared with the young people in their teams.

IP Labs is financed by the Cottino Foundation, the Turin Chamber of Commerce and Unicredit for 140.000 euros, and implemented by the Cottino Social Impact Campus. Among the programme’s distinctive features is the important network of partners: Politecnico di Torino, Università degli Studi di Torino, Fondazione Collegio Universitario Einaudi, Fondazione Piemonte Innova, Api Torino, Confindustria Canavese, Unione Industriali di Torino, YES4TO, Unigens and Torino Social Impact.