An innovative approach to research and development: The CEFRIEL experience

CEFRIEL (Centre for Research and Training in Information Technology) is a non-profit organization that represents a point of contact among University, Technological Companies and Public Government. Since its foundation in 1988 its goal has been related to the education and the research in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). CEFRIEL constitutes itself in seven areas embracing all the aspects of ICT from hardware design to software engineering. The enormous number of trained specialized technicians represents the most important result of the Centre: more than 500 specialists and about 100 researchers for the ICT sector. In 1998 CEFRIEL created a new area, the Information and communication TEchnology for Medicine area (ITEM), as the result of the previous positive experiences in the healthcare field. In the last two years the results obtained by the ITEM area show that CEFRIEL's approach could be profitable also in the healthcare sector.