Campania Aerospace District, DAC

Campania Aerospace Technological District – DAC S.c.a r.l. – was born on May 30th, 2012 with a definite goal: stimulate the collaboration between research centers, universities and firms in Campania region for creating concrete business opportunities and continuous occasions of growth and innovation. Campania Aerospace District brings 159 direct and indirect partners, including 22 large Companies (e.g.: Leonardo [ex Alenia Aermacchi - a Finmeccanica Company], Magnaghi Aeronautica, DEMA, GEVEN, Atitech, Telespazio, etc.), 18 Research Centers (e.g.: CNR - National Research Council, CIRA - Italian Aerospace Research Center, ENEA and the 5 Campania Universities) and 109 SMEs. In the Campania economic system, the aerospace supply chain plays a leading role representing an element of development for the region, both in terms of industrial presence and high technological content required by the productive processes. DAC has developed a feasibility study based on 12 strategic programs, which was approved by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) with the highest score. These projects, to be implemented over three years, are the strategic path (of research, development and training) that the district is following. For Campania region, the technological aerospace district represents a fundamental step towards the realization and the management of an industrial network able to develop competitive solutions to be properly proposed to qualified national and international customers. As a new model of development, the challenge taken up by the DAC is linked to the consolidation and integration of the competences of all regional excellence in the aerospace industry: • Commercial Aviation, for the development of enabling methodologies and technologies for the design and construction of the new regional aircraft; • General Aviation, for the development of manufacturing and assembly techniques of light aircraft for the Business & General Aviation (B&G Aviation); • Space and Carriers, for the design and development of space platforms such as micro satellites and dual-use technologies related to carriers and systems for logistic and communications; • Maintenance and Transformation, for the development of methods of maintenance and transformation useful for the new technologies and methodologies planned within the district. The ability of the DAC to integrate all the regional players of the technological and productive supply chain, putting it in relation with research, is made possible also by the adoption of an innovative model of governance, able to ensure the representation required by each member and at the same time it allows to use a collaborative system of project & knowledge management on which all the partners work independently but with an integrated view. In addition, the transversal actions implemented by DAC to focus efforts and address the regional strategy in the aerospace field, include: vocational training and high education, technology transfer and communication, duality and internationalization. In this context, the DAC has moved the first major steps. In fact, recently the district has implemented important actions for ensuring its involvement in the most important national and international aerospace platforms. These actions are:
• the membership to ACARE Italy; • the adhesion to the EACP Network; • the adherence to the Space Platform SPIN-it. These actions represent an instrument of development and growth, a catalyst of business opportunities and innovative projects and a further mechanism of technology transfer. It should be noted that the DAC pursues all its objectives by adopting a meta-district vision. In fact, it is one of the founding member of the National Aerospace Technological Cluster (CTNA). In this way, the strategic program of the DAC is part of a largest system, which involves the other Italian aerospace districts and the entire national aerospace industry, with the aim to coordinate the developments and to focus the efforts at national level. The birth of the DAC represents an important step able to give back to Campania region the leading role in the enabling technologies for new products in the Commercial Aviation, General Aviation, Space and MRO.