The Gianfranco Ferré Research Center, Digital Innovation for the Creative and Cultural Industries was established in December 2021 by Politecnico di Milano following the Ferré family’s donation of the Gianfranco Ferré Foundation’s archives and headquarters.

Under the coordination of the Fashion in Process Research Laboratory of the Department of Design and as an integral part of the Library and Historical Archives system of the Politecnico di Milano, the Research Center intends to bring together the technical-scientific know-how and design culture that characterize the identity of the Politecnico di Milano with the material and immaterial heritage related to the history, culture and techniques of fashion preserved and valorized by the Gianfranco Ferré Foundation.

The Research Centre is an interdepartmental Research Centre involving different disciplinary components of the University: Department of Design, Department of Mechanics, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering and the Department of Mathematics.. It is based on an interdisciplinary vision capable of combining heritage with innovation and technology and integrates a deep domain knowledge in design and fashion with ICT, User Experience and User Interaction skills.

Through research in the field of digital innovation, the Research Center aims to investigate, develop and experiment with advanced techniques for the visualization, representation and use of material artifacts with a high cultural content, typical of the creative and cultural industries that represent a distinctive identity element of Italian Culture and its recognition and positioning in the international arena.