en.Wedoany.com Reported - Ntt Data has officially inaugurated its Living Labs in Bari, Italy, marking the first outcome of the Nxt Digital Platform launched as part of a technological innovation plan following the signing of a Program Contract (Contratto di Programma) with the Apulia Region (Regione Puglia), and realized in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Bari (Politecnico di Bari).
According to a statement from the group, the Living Labs are the first component of an ecosystem aimed at accelerating applied research, technology testing, and the transfer of innovations to businesses, public administrations, and local entities, thereby consolidating the Apulia Region's position as a center of excellence for digital technology development. The Living Labs are not just laboratories but co-innovation spaces where clients, public administrations, universities, startups, and partners can engage with emerging technologies up close, experiment in real-world scenarios, and collaborate with Ntt Data experts to transform research findings into concrete solutions.
Within these spaces, several prototypes are already under development in areas such as urban planning, sustainable mobility, regional monitoring, natural resource management, predictive maintenance, workplace safety, and the optimization of infrastructure and services. The Nxt Digital Platform aims to create an environment capable of observing and interpreting social, economic, and environmental evolution, connecting research, skills, and technology to drive the region's digital transformation in a structured, responsible, and sustainable manner. This initiative strengthens Bari's position within Ntt Data's international network and reaffirms the company's commitment to fostering investment, skills development, and innovation in Southern Italy.
The Living Labs are divided into five specialized areas: Territory Digital Twin, 5G & Edge Cloud Orchestration, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, and Inclusion & Ethics, each designed to facilitate the experimentation of emerging technologies and the development of solutions applicable to real-world contexts. Initial development projects include digital twin solutions supporting urban planning and mobility, low-latency service trials based on 5G and edge computing, AI applications for regional monitoring and predictive maintenance, and quantum computing use cases for solving complex optimization problems. Additionally, the Ethics & Inclusion Living Lab, developed in collaboration with the Department of Design at the Polytechnic University of Bari, aims to integrate principles of inclusivity, sustainability, and responsibility into the application of emerging technologies from the initial design phase.
Umberto Fratino, Rector of the Polytechnic University of Bari, stated that the Nxt Digital Platform is a strategic initiative for building the innovation ecosystem in the Apulia Region. Through this collaboration, the public and private sectors combine emerging technologies with multidisciplinary capabilities to jointly address the challenges of digital transformation and sustainable development. Ludovico Diaz, CEO of Ntt Data Italy, noted that Ntt Data firmly believes in the potential of the Apulia Region and Southern Italy as engines for the country and innovation. The Living Labs, born from public-private partnerships, aim to foster cross-pollination among the research community, businesses, institutions, and startups, accelerating the transformation of ideas and experiments into concrete solutions.
Antonio Decaro, President of the Apulia Region, emphasized that the choice of a multinational company like Ntt Data to invest in Apulia adds value to the region economically, socially, and in terms of attractiveness, creating an ecosystem that has made the city of Bari one of Italy's leading information technology hubs, with nearly 8,000 employees in the Bari metropolitan area alone. Decaro also noted that, for the first time, a reverse brain drain is being observed in Southern Italy, with men and women able to return to live in their hometowns without sacrificing their careers and passions, thanks to investments like those from Ntt Data. He believes this phenomenon should be supported and efforts made to expand it to other sectors.
