Why Pescopagano: innovation where no one expects it
In the heart of Basilicata, perched among the forests of the Lucanian Apennines, Pescopagano is a village that knows well the weight of passing time. Like dozens of other municipalities in Italy's inner areas, it has seen its streets empty out, its young people leave, its skills disperse toward Milan, Rome, or abroad. And yet it is precisely here, where silence seems to have triumphed over vitality, that a group of visionaries has decided to plant the seed of something radically different. Pesco Innovation Hub is born from the conviction that the most authentic innovation does not need metropolitan skylines, but communities willing to bet on themselves. And Pescopagano, with its history of resilience and its still-intact territory, has all the credentials to become an open-air laboratory.
The problem: depopulation and brain drain
Rural Basilicata is losing inhabitants at a rate that shows no sign of slowing. Pescopagano, which in the 1960s had more than four thousand residents, today counts just over fifteen hundred: a silent hemorrhage that takes with it skills, energy, and the future. Young people who complete their secondary or university studies rarely find opportunities on the territory commensurate with their education, and the lack of technological and entrepreneurial infrastructure makes leaving not a choice, but almost an obligation. Yet there are also those who choose to return: stories like the one told in Female Entrepreneurship in Basilicata show that a reversal of course is possible.
The answer: a local innovation ecosystem
Pesco Innovation Hub overturns this narrative by proposing a concrete model: building an innovation ecosystem directly within the territory, rather than waiting for it to arrive from outside. The hub acts as a catalyst capable of retaining local talent and attracting new talent, offering training in emerging technologies, prototyping spaces, and support for launching innovative enterprises. The bet is to demonstrate that a village in Basilicata can compete with the hubs of major cities, not despite its size, but precisely because of it, transforming proximity and a sense of community into a real competitive advantage.
The three pillars of the mission: startups and innovation in Pescopagano
The mission of Pesco Innovation Hub rests on three strategic priorities that, intertwined with one another, trace a clear trajectory: transforming Pescopagano from a small town in Basilicata into a true technological hub, a tech hub and living laboratory of innovation. The first is to build a hub capable of sustaining itself economically; the second is to nurture a pipeline of startups that grow within the territory; the third is to generate a real impact on the community, involving young people, businesses and citizens. Not three isolated objectives, but cogs in a single mechanism: sustainability makes training possible, training generates skills and startups, and startups produce impact, visibility and new resources for the territory. It is a virtuous circle designed to demonstrate that innovation does not need metropolises: it can be born anywhere there is vision, method and community. In Pescopagano, this bet is already in motion.
A self-sustaining Hub: towards economic autonomy
The first priority is to make the Pesco Innovation Hub an economic entity capable of standing on its own two feet. The goal is not to live off contributions, but to build its own revenue over time: membership fees, sponsorships from companies that believe in the territory and, above all, concrete services offered to businesses and professionals in Pescopagano and the surrounding municipalities. Alongside this is the ability to intercept regional and national public tenders, with the support of consultants from the Lucanian territory, to finance projects and infrastructure. The direction is clear: a sustainable organization that generates measurable economic value and that can become a replicable model for other rural realities in Basilicata.
A startup pipeline growing in the territory
The second priority is the heart of every incubator: to foster the birth and growth of startups directly in Pescopagano. The hub already supports the first resident ventures, from Vanto, active in collaborative robotics, to Alamastr, which brings the artisanal tailoring of eyewear to the online market, and works to expand the pipeline with new projects, guiding them toward legal incorporation, first funding rounds, and Demo Days in front of mentors and investors. In parallel, the hub is setting up a rapid prototyping center, a hackerspace where ideas can take physical form, and is experimenting with pilot projects in the fields of AI, applied robotics, and CleanTech. From tailored eyewear to robots for viticulture featured in Robofield, every startup demonstrates that innovative entrepreneurship is possible in Pescopagano.
Young people, technologies and impact on the territory
The third priority is to root the hub in the life of the country. Involving young people is not just training: it is a strategy against depopulation. The Pesco Innovation Hub has designed a calendar of workshops on key technologies, from Artificial Intelligence to drones, from IoT and home automation to social media management, designed to be accessible even to those starting from scratch, with a practical approach that transforms curiosity into marketable skills. Around training, the impact on the territory grows: the mapping of local businesses, Agora sessions open to citizens to give voice to the community, and the opening of a FabLab and coworking space where people can work side by side. Events such as the Startup Day and Robofield demonstrate that, when the territory listens, participation follows. The ambition is one: to show the young people of Basilicata that it is not necessary to emigrate to work with the technologies of the future.
From ideas to action: what is already happening
The Pesco Innovation Hub is not a project on paper: it is a machine already in motion. While the vision takes shape in strategic objectives, on the ground the first concrete actions are transforming words into tangible results. From the search for public and private funding to the mapping of local entrepreneurial needs, from the organization of the first technology workshops to the construction of a structured digital presence, every piece is being put in place with method and urgency. In Pescopagano, the season of innovation is no longer an aspiration: it is an open construction site.
The startups we support
The most concrete proof of the hub's mission are the startups that are already part of it. Vanto develops collaborative robotics systems; Alamastr produces tailor-made eyewear made in Pescopagano and brings them online and to design fairs; new ventures such as KRLee are in the onboarding phase. Each one of them is living proof that a village in Basilicata can generate innovative enterprise.
Events that build community
In the space of a few months, the hub brought to Pescopagano its first Startup Day and the Robofield event dedicated to robotics in viticulture, gathering around a hundred visitors and cross-cutting interest among young people, entrepreneurs and producers. The lessons learned from these first events are already shaping the roadmap for the upcoming ones.
Services for local businesses
To embed innovation in the economic fabric of Pescopagano, the Hub has launched a mapping project of companies with operational headquarters in the municipality. A targeted questionnaire, already in the distribution phase, aims to identify the most pressing issues, from the shortage of qualified labour to the need for digitalisation, in order to build a tailored service offering. Among the first solutions in the pipeline is the Social Media AI Manager, a service designed to support local professionals and businesses in Basilicata in the strategic use of artificial intelligence applied to digital communication, with the goal of being operational within twelve months.
The calendar of upcoming events
The training program of the Pesco Innovation Hub is taking shape with three appointments already in the planning phase. The AI Starter Pack, the first workshop dedicated to artificial intelligence, will open the calendar within the next six months, followed by the Drone Starter Pack, a course that will range from flight dynamics to practical simulations, and a course on IoT and Home Automation designed to make connected home technologies accessible even to the less experienced. Each event will be held in Pescopagano at the coworking space currently being set up, with participation certificates and dedicated pages already being prepared on the association's website. Registrations will open soon: the time to act is now.
How to participate and support the project
Pesco Innovation Hub is not a closed project: it is an open ecosystem that grows with every person who chooses to be part of it. There is a concrete way to contribute, whatever your starting point. If you are a young person or a student, sign up for our workshops and courses on AI, drones and IoT. If you have a business or a profession, discover the hub services designed for the local area. If you have a startup, apply and grow with us towards incorporation and funding. If you are an experienced professional, put your skills at the disposal of others as a mentor by discovering the benefits for members. If you are an institution or a company, collaborate with us as a project partner. Participating means joining a network of people who have decided to invest in the future of this community, demonstrating that innovation does not need large metropolises to take root: a model of rural innovation and social entrepreneurship that all of Italy can replicate.
