Happy Birthday San Marino Innovation: 8 years of growth, change and innovation.

It was May 26, 2014, when the then Techno Science Park opened its doors to innovators to crete a new business culture in the territory.

The first headquarters was located in Rovereta and had 12 offices with a total of 36 workstations, a meeting room, and a reception. The first incubated companies were only 12 and some of them are currently present within the innovation regime although they are different social structures.

The first relocation of headquarters in 2016 to the Admiral Point Center for the need for additional physical spaces: a little over a year and a half, in fact, we had gone from 12 to 34 technology startups, 8 about to enter and increasing demands.

An important change took place with the approval of Decree No. 23 of 7 March 2018 when the name of the company became "Institute for Innovation of the Republic of San Marino", in short, "San Marino Innovation" and more specific functions and powers have been conferred, more in keeping with the new objectives set.

The change of mission and corporate restructuring occurred between 2017 and 2018 and subsequently through the regulatory advances of 2019. It becomes a private law company whose shares belong to 100% of the Excellency Chamber, thus taking itself to the center of the policies of attraction of innovation in the country.

From generalist Incubator, with physical spaces available for startups to Authority that promotes business ecosystems in the field of technological innovation, based on an open system, where the actors are local networks called innovation ecosystems. The Institute has therefore embarked on a development path that responds to the need to create a new and more solid economy in the country.

In 2019, in fact, the Great and General Council issued the new Innovation Decree "Rules for high-tech companies" aimed at all those who wanted to create an innovative enterprise. The concept of "High Tech Enterprise" is introduced, with 3 different categories, with a total duration of 12 years: First Level Technological Startup (SUT I), which provides for the start of the innovative process; Second Level Technological Startup (SUT II), initial expansion phase (early growth); Società Altamente Tecnologico (SAT), the consolidation phase (sustained growth). The advantages, that the new D.D. Innovation has reserved to the entrepreneurs, have been remarkable; among them the tax advantage for a total period of 12 years, the reduction of the share capital, the possibility of applying for residence for directors and family members with relevant residence permits for all employees, the liberalization of cocopro relations and the introduction of occasional and ancillary work.

At the end of 2019, the last change of location, at the Centro Fiorina in Domagnano, because, with the adoption of the new D.D. is no longer necessary a large space for the physical incubation of startups that, on the contrary, now have the possibility of settling in all the territory of San Marino.

2020 was a positive year, a year that, despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic, has given satisfaction to high-tech companies. There are in fact a total of 36 companies, of which 15 startups in SUT1, 17 in SUTII, 1 in the consolidation phase with full commercial operations (SAT) and 3 belonging to the old system.

At a time when entrepreneurs but also the workers themselves had to or could stop to reflect on new opportunities, San Marino Innovation was ready to welcome their ideas: new companies were born, new employees and a wide variety of skills.

2021, in fact, marks a record of certified requests and companies: 51 requests for access to the innovation regime for a total of 75 High Tech Content Companies certified. Companies that operate in different fields, from the industrial one to that the services, passing from the sanitary field to the biological one, and that they employ very 127 dependent workers.

A clear increase compared to 2020 that had settled to 17 new instances and even more marked if compared with the 2019 figure, in which there were only 9.

The institute has continued to receive an approval even in early 2022: to date, 14 companies have already entered into the scheme and 20 applications have been submitted. In total there are 80 ACT enterprises with 171 employees.

In the last two years, the social channels of the Institute have also enjoyed good success thanks to the special sections dedicated to certified companies, the insights on the functionality and potential of blockchain, and NFT, and updates on the advantages and novelties of the Innovation Decree. The Linkedin page is the one with the most followers, about 3000, followed by Facebook with 2700 followers, then Instagram with 1157 followers, and finally Twitter, with 1100 followers.

The site of San Marino Innovation in 2021 reached 14K accesses with an average of over 1000 visitors per month. In the first months of 2022, the visualizations were 33% more than in the same period of the previous year. The month of April 2022 has reached the highest number of accesses in the last 8 years, almost 2000 views.

The goal of the coming months is to increasingly implement the services available to high-tech companies, including the opportunity for matching but also - and above all - networking. For such purpose, a new modality of internal comparison has started also, exploiting - not to the case - an innovative platform conceived and realized just from one of the certified enterprises. On the outside, however, San Marino Innovation is

è  inserted in different international circuits and has attended important events and initiatives, offering to the enterprises the possibility to insert themselves in very effective and dynamic contexts.