I-Com is an Italian think tank based in Rome and Brussels, founded in 2005 by a group of scholars and managers with the aim to promote policy related debates and, moreover, to analyse competitive and innovative topics. In 2016, I-Com has opened its Brussels office to further develop its activities on a European stage and to solicit the positioning of relevant stakeholders on issues crucial for the competitiveness of the EU and Italian economy. The institute focuses its research on three main areas: Digital, Energy and Healthcare, with a special focus on how to strengthen innovation in the economy.
The 2020 edition of the I-Com Report on energy innovation falls immediately after the most acute phase of an unexpected, if not unpredictable, pandemic. The usual search around energy innovation which, like every year, seeks to broaden and differentiate the spectrum investigative compared to the previous edition, focusing on some innovations that could being paradigmatic (e.g. urban micro mobility) is more difficult than in past. In addition to the usual analysis on research and development, also extended to mobility, inevitably more and more sustainable, we have tried to identify other areas of diffusion impact, such as the combination of energy and digitalization or sector coupling and the accumulation of energy. Alongside these themes, innovations in the way work is carried out and, lastly, an in-depth study of startups, in particular energy ones.