Everything started from an intuition: civil society had to be the protagonist of Expo Milano 2015 where the core themes were environmental protection, sustainability, social equality and resource management.
After the experience of the Cascina Triulza pavilion at Expo Milano 2015, that same intuition made Fondazione Triulza decide to stay in that place, to take root in what a few years later would become MIND Milano Innovation District. The aim was to bring the legacy of Expo and the values of civil society in MIND, City of the Future, in the science and technology hub that was rising: a unique opportunity for the growth of the social sector.
Today, ten years after Expo Milano 2015, we can take stock of the work done so far and we realize how our role and identity have been consolidated in the innovation ecosystem but at the same time, have been transformed, thanks to co-design.
Today, Fondazione Triulza works with all public and private stakeholders of MIND and is part of the strategic committee together with Arexpo, Lendlease, IRCCS Hospital Galeazzi – Sant’Ambrogio, Human Technopole, University of Milan and Politecnico di Milano. The common goal is to make MIND a hub of scientific, technological and social innovation to shape a sustainable, fair and inclusive city of the future. A strategic goal that keeps alive the legacy of the Universal Exhibition in Milan, in a context where it is important to continue building bridges and relationships between different worlds.
“Fondazione Triulza is working in MIND with its network of organizations of the social sector and civil economy, to bring them the knowledge produced by the scientific and technological organisations of the district, to promote partnerships between associations, companies and institutions, and invest in the active participation of citizens, especially young people. MIND’s values charter is at the centre, the result of a journey all the anchors have contributed to, but which started from the proposals of young people. A great challenge and also a big strategic and economic investment for a paradigm shift” says Massimo Minelli, President of the Fondazione Triulza.
Since the day of the end of Expo 2015, Fondazione Triulza has tried to make the site always accessible to citizens and organizations, even during the dismantling phase, hosting and organising events and initiatives on the themes of innovation and social impact, civil economy and the SDGs. The investments to date have been 6 million euros, allowing to organize in MIND 277 initiatives with the participation of almost 100,000 operators and citizens (more than half of them were young people), and develop 48 social innovation and community engagement projects promoted by the Social Innovation Academy with over 350 partnerships.
These pioneering and proactive initiatives have confirmed the Fondazione as one of the key players in Italy and also in Europe in the field of social innovation: it has also been recognized as a EU Cluster of social economy.
With the evolution of the MIND project and the growth of its network of organizations, Fondazione Triulza has been confirmed as a privileged place for the dialogue between the social sector and scientific research and technological enterprises. After devising some initial initiatives to bring the research world into contact with the third sector, Fondazione Triulza has successfully tried out two technology transfer routes which have enabled 76 start-upsup and scale up innovative social impact: the first, born in 2020, was the Social Tech path, in collaboration with Fondosviluppo, Coopfond and General Fonds; while since 2024 the Capstone project in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano, Involving young researchers in management and biomedical engineering.
One of the new areas of work initiated by Fondazione Triulza in 2025 is social procurement, to enhance social enterprises by linking them with public and private stakeholders of MIND, With the awareness that the social economy must acquire an increasingly important role at European level as capable of combining production of economic and social value and give birth to models of Open Innovation.
Since the beginning of its post-Expo activities, a key feature of the Fondazione Triulza has been the involvement of young people and surrounding territories, to create a continuous link between MIND and local communities, and involve the new generations of all Italy in the design of the city of the future. Hence the various projects with schools of different order and degree for the creation of initiatives and opportunities that would exploit the talents and skills of the young generations, proposing ever new formats, interactive and based on the coto design for young people of all ages. One of the best known nationally and now also internationally is the Social Innovation Campus that since 2020 has involved 45,500 participants, including 32,700 students from high schools all over Italy. The A City in MIND competition is instead aimed at primary and secondary schools in Lombardy, which from 2018 are invited to propose ideas and projects on the cities of the future starting from the objectives of the 2030 Agenda: Since the first edition, 7,916 students have been involved with the presentation of 213 projects.
For its ten years, Fondazione Triulza brings to the MIND Innovation Week 2025 social economy, gender medicine and STE(A)M.
Fondazione Triulza ETS participates in the MIND Innovation Week 2025 “Shapes of Innovation – L’energia delle idee” (5-10 May) with various events to contribute to the promotion of social economy and scientific dissemination and STE(A) disciplinesM between citizens and the new generation.
On the occasion of the Day of Europe, Friday 9 May Fondazione Triulza in collaboration with Tiresia – Politecnico di Milano and Comune di Milano organizes the meeting “New Social Economy in Europe. First trials of social procurement” (09:30 – 12:00), which was also included in the Milan Civil Week.
Saturday 10 May will be a day dedicated to the disciplines STE(A)M a theme that Fondazione Triulza promotes for years together with partners MIND. In the morning, the theme is taken up again under the perspective of Medicine and Life Sciences with the meeting “STE(A)M Women and Gender Medicine. The challenges of the interaction between science, profession and art” (10.00 – 12.00). In the afternoon during the closing party of “MIND Education” (14.30 – 18.00) Primary and secondary schools in Lombardy that promote gender equality and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development through STEAM disciplines will be awarded. The two events are also part of the ASviS Sustainable Development Festival.
Fondazione Triulza will also participate together with all MIND anchors at the presentation of the MIND Annual Report on Monday, 5 May at 2.30 pm. The entire week’s programme at this link: https://www.mindvillage.it/mind-innovation-week/
