Innovative collaboration beyond borders

Why Parma?

Parma lies in the heart of Italy’s “Food Valley” and has been designated by UNESCO as a Creative City of Gastronomy. Furthermore, the city is home to the EFSA (European Food and Safety Agency) headquarters. The Emilia Romagna region in northern Italy is known for its large share of companies in food and agriculture – over 5,000 of which are in the food industry. Many of them contribute to the development of the regional food supply chain by producing food, packaging machinery, and sustainable packaging. “The region, with its more than 25.000 exporting companies, is the first Italian region by export value per capita. For Krones, this combination of entrepreneurship, cooperation and international connections is extremely valuable for building collaborative relationships. The companies in this region – both in research and in production – have the best understanding of the food and beverage industry and so, together, we can explore promising solutions for our customers,” says Marco Casappa, Head of Compact Class.

First joint research projects completed successfully

Building on the existing relationships between Kosme and the University of Parma, the innovation hub initiated its first research cooperation for developing new packaging materials in July 2022. Together with CIPACK, the University of Parma’s Interdepartmental Center for Packaging, new packaging solutions and materials were examined for their properties and environmental impacts using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology.

According to Professor Giuseppe Vignali, Associate Professor in the Industrial Systems Engineering Department of Engineering and Architecture at the University of Parma and Coordinator of the master’s degree program in Engineering for the Food Industry, the collaboration with the Krones Innovation Hub adds value to all the research activities that are at the core of the university. By working together with the industry, the university has a better insight into the real application, i.e., both the market requirements and the legal regulations, which a company like Krones knows in detail.

Now that the first projects have been completed successfully, the collaboration is to be expanded to include other disciplines within the research center.