AFIL (Associazione Fabbrica Intelligente Lombardia) is the outcome of a Lombardy-Region-led process aiming to set-up a network of clusters interested in carrying out, at national and at international level, an integrated sustainable system of infrastructures, competences and methodologies supporting research and innovation. It is a private, non-profit legal entity representing a network of companies, universities, public or private research institutions and entities (including financial ones) operating in the field of intelligent factory (Advanced Manufacturing). AFIL operates as the private part of a public-private network with Regione Lombardia dedicated to advanced manufacturing and its members are located in different territorial areas and focused on specific application fields. The cluster aims at promoting and facilitating research and innovation as regards to best practices and enabling technologies for the manufacturing sector in order to support and develop the Lombard production system’s leadership and competitiveness.
The mission of the cluster can be summarized as follow:
- To set-up a stable community by connecting companies, universities, research institutions and associations, thus favouring cooperation by promoting research and innovation projects and initiatives,
- To be a reference actor for the region for the defining of research and innovation strategies in the manufacturing sector,
- To support the development of a research and innovation extra-regional network through the participation to CFI – intelligent factory national cluster and the connection with different European regions within smart specialization strategies.

