Metaverse tool the first goal for newly-inaugurated project ROAD

Italian energy company Eni has inaugurated its project ROAD; the first tool it will develop will be a digital twin-enabled metaverse to experiment combining projects and drive the project’s goals to develop new supply chains.

Rome Advanced District (ROAD) project was launched by companies Eni, Acea, Autostrade per l’Italia, Bridgestone, Cisco, Gruppo FS and NextChem (MAIRE).

A technology research hub dedicated to new energy supply chains, the project is based at the site of the Ostiense district’s Gasometer facility in Rome, Italy, with aims of developing applied industrial research collaborations and academic research.

The first shared working tool developed by ROAD will be a metaverse environment, a digital twin, through which experiments will combine projects with visions of the future to design the best solutions to support urban communities.

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The ROAD network’s goals will be to:

• Develop, promote and accelerate innovative projects and scientific, industrial and technological research;
• Establish supply chain collaborations between the research and development departments of companies, universities, research centres, start-ups and innovative SMEs on energy and digital transition technologies;
• Use the Ostiense asset as a ‘living lab’ to experiment with emerging technologies to support urban communities;
• Attract and train talent to develop new professions.

The network’s impact areas will range from technologies for decarbonisation, circular economy (water and waste management) and energy efficiency and storage, to sustainable mobility, smart cities and the promotion of health and safety.

ROAD’s goals will also include developing a model for the energy districts of the future, starting with an analysis of sustainable mobility and features of smart cities.

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All of ROAD’s co-founders will be involved in the project, each according to their respective expertise, to develop and accelerate industrial supply chains.

Research into and development of new materials, collection methods and material reuse will be the focus of ROAD’s activities, as well as the study and testing of new digital solutions that will pave the way for increasingly sustainable mobility.

In addition to research collaborations, ROAD will establish training programmes to enrich the skills of partner companies, encourage internal co-innovation, test integrated mobility solutions (leveraging the use of the Ostiense asset) and set up a joint observatory on labour market transformation in relation to these newly developed supply chains.

The project is located at the Gasometer in Ostiense, Rome, Italy – a building complex owned by Eni covering a total surface area of approximately 13 hectares and currently undergoing redevelopment and remediation – which dates back to the early twentieth century.

It is currently also home to the Joule Business School, Eni’s new research laboratories and the ZERO accelerator (part of the CDP National Network dedicated to funding the best clean tech start-ups).