By harnessing the value of scientific knowledge and combined it with a synergic exploitation of advanced research equipment and facilities, COMT makes available the science of the academic-healthcare world to the community and to the industry of the medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. This in the belief that technological progress is crucial for the scientific-cultural development of mankind and for the society’s evolution. Moreover, COMT aims, in the short and long-term, to offer to the individual new cancer prevention and treatment modalities, predominantly contributed by the identification of more accurate and more effective methods for an individualized diagnosis of cancer and discovery and pre-clinical development of more effective and tailored therapeutic treatment modalities. In that sense, the strategy implemented by the Centre entails the promotion of:

• basic, applied, clinical and industrial research projects;
• services rendered to third parties with the aim to meet the needs of public and private bodies in the biomedical, pharmaceutical and biotechnological fields;
• activation and conduction of clinical trials;
• practical and theoretical training of the Centre’s personnel, with specific attention to younger researchers at their early stage of their scientific career, and with a strong orientation towards enhancing the knowledge of procedures and methods to undertake for implementing industrial and clinical transfer of the products generated within the Centre;
• public disclosure of the Centre’s findings, including discoveries made through collaborations with other research centres, and how these can be turned into concrete and tangible industrial and clinical applications, while preserving the full industrial and commercial protection of the Centre’s discoveries.

For the optimal performance of these activities and for the attainment of the defined objectives, the Centre, as a research body and as an organization that groups together high-level professional expertise and know-how, agrees to:

1. allocate a substantial part of its human and instrumental resources to activities directly or indirectly aimed at improving the national healthcare system and the regional entrepreneurship that provides support to said system;
2. employ human resources with high levels of technical-scientific expertise and professional experience to ensure the quality of activities furthered by the Centre, initiatives in which the Centre participates as a cooperation partner, or activities that have been commissioned to the Centre by third parties;
3. assure all necessary undertakings for obtaining the results expected from research and clinical-industrial transferring activities, if required by taking advantage of facilities outside the Centre and, specifically, by availing itself, in a rational and effective manner, scientific collaborations with other universities and research centres located in Italy and abroad;
4. to the extent that this would be possible, comply with the deadlines indicated in the agreements entered into with public and private bodies, in other words complying with the delivery terms of the scientific products requested by the clients, but without compromising the market competitiveness of the Centre;
5. provide researchers operating within public and private research institutions, private diagnostic laboratories, institutions operating within the scope of the national healthcare system, pharmaceutical, biomedical and biotechnology industries, with services that are in line with the level of quality and professionalism required of all member laboratories/centres of the “High Technology Network” of Emilia-Romagna;
6. disclose to the public the scientific and technical results achieved by the Centre through high-impact scientific publications, communications at national and international conferences, presentations at workshops and training courses, and other scientific events, with compromising the full industrial and commercial exploitation of intellectual proprietary rights;
7. ensure constant renewal and enrichment of its own scientific, technological and cultural heritage in order to guarantee the performance of topical and competitive research activities;
8. cooperate with other laboratories belonging to the aforehead mentioned “High Technology Network” of Emilia Romagna in order to augment the potentials for clinical and industrial spin-offs of its scientific activities;
9. refrain from carrying out expert survey and assessment activities for companies with which the Centre cooperates for research and consulting projects;
10. ensure, by means of suitable prevention measures, that the industrial partners will preserve an enduring trust in the independent opinion of the Centre, even when the industrial support is implemented with significant investments of resources;
11. maintain active and enforce internal procedures aimed at assuring strict confidentiality with regard to research and developmental activities pursued for third parties, or within the framework of institutional projects, and ascertain full protection of sensible data and discoveries of patent-filing potential;
12. elaborate and enforce internal procedures aimed at preventing conflictual situation and legal disputes with public and private bodies disrespecting contractual clauses, or even inclined to breach signed agreements.