New Scenarios for a Development between Infrastructures and Innovation

Both infrastructure and research, development and innovation, make communications and exchanges between distant places possible. As a consequence, geographic positions and administrative borders of countries are less and less significant compared to the polarity of the individual cities [23]. Europe tries to keep up with this global vision, European cities with the biggest growth rates are already “designing the revolution”. Stockholm, Copenhagen and Hamburg have developed strategic holistic plans where man and its needs are put at the forefront. The growth trend also involves mid-sized cities. Some researches indicate that 77 % of the European cities with a population of more than 300 million have demographically grown between 2000 and 2014 and a further growth of 96 % is expected in the next 15 years. From the port and infrastructural systems’ point of view, Trieste, can closely resemble this model by strengthening the two drivers for development, quality of life and employment opportunity [7] [8]. Until now considered at the center of Europe, today it is contextually repositioned, through the Belt and Road Initiative, at the western extremity of a vast Eurasian system [23]. The specificity that needs to be investigated is the complex system that joins infrastructure and port logistics with research and scientific innovation promoted by the International Center for Theoretical Physics, the International School for Advanced Studies, the University of Trieste (Università degli Studi di Trieste), AREA Science Park among others. Through a recent Intesa San Paolo monitor, Trieste’s ICT cluster stands out along the 24 high tech Italian areas for electronic components, semiconductors and computer hardware export performance for the TLC.