R2B 2025: the 20th edition of the innovation and skills fair comes to a close
Two days of ideas, innovation, talent, and international collaboration
Research to Business lit up Bologna’s Exhibition Centre on July 25-26, bringing together more than 3,000 participants, 500 B2B meetings, 100 conferences and workshops, and 300 speakers from across Europe. This year’s event marked a turning point for the future of innovation in Italy, laying the foundation for the national platform that will lead to R2B Italy 2026, in collaboration with the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces.
The two-day event was a meeting point for institutions, universities, research centers, and businesses to discuss key issues shaping the future of innovation from the new European STEP platform and the FP10 framework programme to the sustainability of the PNRR and investment strategies for startups and beyond.
In this dynamic context, it is worth mentioning the workshop Mobility and international circulation of talents in Emilia-Romagna, held on 25 June in the Policy, Talents and Finance Arena. The session focused on the latest data and trends in talent flows and featured the launch of the second edition of a regional report on international mobility Mobility and international circulation of talents in Emilia-Romagna, which illustrates useful information to understand the main characteristics and trends of migration flows in and out of the regional territory. This report is one of the results of the Talent Observatory for the analysis of mobility and talent circulation phenomena, set up within the framework of the actions of the Regional Law no. 2/2023 Attraction, Permanence and Enhancement of Highly Specialised Talents in Emilia-Romagna.
The workshop brought together experts from ART-ER, Confindustria Emilia-Romagna, PRAXI, Vertiv, and ManagerItalia to discuss how Emilia-Romagna can better attract and retain highly skilled professionals.
In addition, ART-ER and Confindustria Emilia-Romagna presented the new guide to procedures, incentives and opportunities for companies wishing to hire from abroad, and the new dedicated it-ER services, available from July 2025, were presented.
