Innovation contributes to two-thirds of economic growth in developed countries which means that about 85% of productivity growth in advanced economies is driven by innovation.

So, this is why we believe that this is the most essential part of our activities. Our final goal is to create new opportunities for enterprises and citizens. We especially want to contribute to the creation of new jobs involving aerospace technology that help us boost employment figures but also the quality of our lives in a sustainable way.

Growth and in particular sustainable growth has become increasing related to regional economies’ capacity to innovate, transform, and adapt to an ever-changing and more competitive environment. Our ecosystem encourages innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, and skills development. All of this can happen through the strong and continuous cooperation process put in place by the Cluster’s stakeholders, which demonstrates how the Cluster’s policy can also be effective in peripheral regions such as Apulia, where there are still barriers to knowledge production and exchange.

Aerospace is a global sector in which the level of cooperation between countries is very high.

Such intense collaboration in a sector is unusual. Only the integration of capabilities, skills, youth and budget can drive humanity to attain the dream of populating Space. From this point of view, we contribute directly, at both national and European levels, to the creation of national and international programmes. We do it in close connection with the Italian Space Agency and the European Space Agency. In Nereus we have found the best structure to create cooperation activities with other regions and, in particular, to focus our efforts on the use of space technologies and how to apply them through different industrial sectors.

From the beginning, we have believed that the development of skills is necessary to foster competitiveness and innovation. For these reasons we have already created numerous post-graduate courses, masters and PhDs, and also many activities with primary and secondary schools,

because we believe that is important to stimulate the creativity and curiosity of young generations from an early age.

Estimates today indicate that we have the largest youth population in human history and history tells us that young people may go in two directions: either they become productive members of their society sharing all of that potential through their talent; or they see no prospect for themselves and their families. So, we need to be careful to drive the younger generations in the right direction to create the best future for them.