The new professorship is intended for the study of innovative materials and the application of nanotechnologies in the development of the next generation of tyres. As part of the agreement, Pirelli will also finance five grants for research Ph.Ds over a 10-year period at the "G. Natta" Department of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano.

The convention is part of a framework of collaboration between university and industrial research, reports Pirelli, the aim of which is to create value from synergies derived from academic activity and applied to the corporate world. The agreement comes in addition to other collaborative activities the Pirelli Group has with Milan universities: among these the consortia CoreCom (Politecnico di Milano) and Corimav (Milan’s Bicocca University), through which research is conducted on on, respectively, second generation photonics and new materials. (Tyres & Accessories/Staffordshire, U.K.)