Introduction. Scenarios for the University of the Future

This volume focuses on the relationships between technological and social innovations, and the new opportunities and challenges that gather around training. It focuses on digital and entrepreneurial skills, with particular reference to the experience of Contamination Labs (CLabs) launched in Italian universities from 2013, intending to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation aimed at founding and supporting new startups. CLabs are educational and creative laboratories that consider technological and cultural transformations that affect the world of work and knowledge. It is assumed that these changes require interdisciplinary skills and professional skills, which are becoming less sectoral. Contamination is a controversial word in languages other than Italian, where instead represents the cross-fertilization: the crossover between different disciplines and between the academic and business worlds is key to the CLab training model, which is based on the opportunities offered by digital technologies, the development of scientific and applied research, and the creativity of youth. The theme of creativity is central to the analysis that this book offers, both in terms of new scenarios that are characterized by technological development and the new economy, and also in terms of the social and cultural changes that accompany the significant transformations that are taking place.