(ANSA) - TRIESTE, SEP 21 - Shortening the distance between businesses and cutting-edge scientific infrastructure is possible and can generate solutions that tangibly improve production processes and products. All this is at hand now, thanks to the InCIMa4 project, funded by the Italy-Austria cross-border cooperation program, that developed an Italian-Austrian network for the multi-technical characterization of intelligent materials. The network includes research infrastructures and excellent materials synthesis and characterization laboratories, such as Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, Salzburg University of Applied Science (FHS), and Paris-Lodron Universitat Salzburg. Through the InCIMa4 project, 13 small and medium-sized companies from Italy and Austria were given free access to the cross-border research infrastructure following the evaluation by a panel of external project experts and the material's innovative potential. InCIMa4 is a partnership project funded by the Interreg V-A Italy-Austria 2014-2020 program; it will be Saturday, September 24, with a booth at the scientific research festival Trieste Next; on Friday 30 in the afternoon, SMEs will be able to visit the Italian research infrastructure of InCIMa4 at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste. (ANSA).