Ninety companies from Italy and the United States, along with researchers and institutional representatives from both countries, gathered at the Italian Embassy in Washington on Friday for the launch of the U.S.-Italy Trusted Tech Accelerator, an initiative to strengthen technological cooperation between the two nations.

The program was launched by the Embassy, the Transatlantic Harmonic Foundation and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue during the third U.S.-Italy Dialogue on Trusted Technologies for Democracies. Over the next 18 months, it will focus on three strategic sectors: artificial intelligence and advanced technologies, energy, and life sciences. It will connect companies, startups, universities, research centers and investors to develop partnerships, joint R&D projects, technology transfer, new products and investments.

Alongside Italian Ambassador to the United States Marco Peronaci, the event was attended by Giorgio Mulè, Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies, the Presidents of Lombardy and Lazio regions, Attilio Fontana and Francesco Rocca, and Confindustria’s Vice President Barbara Cimmino. Minister Anna Maria Bernini and Under Secretary Alessio Butti sent video messages. On the U.S. side, participants included Jacob Helberg, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, and Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Fogel. The event, hosted at the Italian Embassy in Washington and developed with the contribution of Professor Roberto Baldoni, Adviser for Cybersecurity and Technology and Honorary Professor at the Sapienza University of Rome, reached its third edition on Friday.

“The United States and Italy have a long-standing partnership in technology,” Peronaci said. He highlighted the space sector, where Italy is a key partner in the Artemis program and will contribute to lunar exploration through the development of habitation modules. NASA, he said, has valued Italy’s contribution to the program of 5 billion dollars. He also cited cooperation in fundamental physics and quantum technologies, with Italian and American researchers working together on neutrino physics at Fermilab. “The Accelerator offers our companies, research institutions, investors and administrations a concrete way to connect and explore new possibilities,” he said.

The launch comes at a particularly favorable time for U.S.-Italy relations in technology and the economy. On September 21 in New York, Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani and Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed the agreement on critical minerals, and in July Italy joined Pax Silica. Italian companies are also investing in the U.S.: Pirelli will expand its plant in Georgia, Prysmian, besides acquiring an American electrical company, will invest in North Carolina, Angelini has acquired an American pharmaceutical company and Enel Green Power has bought Excelsior Energy Capital.

“Lombardy is ready to play a leading role,” Fontana said, adding that initiatives like the Accelerator “foster dialogue between research and industry and help strengthen the competitiveness of our companies.”

“In technology, energy and life sciences, the decisive question is not only who innovates first, but whom we can trust,” said Francesco Cicione, Founding President of Harmonic Innovation Group and creator of the “Harmonic Innovation” paradigm.

The challenge, Cimmino said, “is to turn innovation into large-scale industrial applications, through concrete partnerships capable of strengthening the competitiveness of companies on both sides of the Atlantic.”