The event “All we want for Christmas is a circular world” organised by Stam on December 14th 2021, addressed several strategic and relevant issues for the future of cities and the economic and social fabric connected to them. Thanks to the masterly chair of Franco Malerba, the first Italian astronaut, extremely topical issues in the field of circular cities and regions were touched upon through a series of concrete presentations on current projects and a final round table that reasoned on the importance of the contamination between disciplines, public and private industrial sectors, ranging from the circular economy on board the International Space Station, with the natural synergies in the city context, to the use of robotics to bring the clothing industry back to Europe, creating new inclusive and attractive jobs in an urban context.

In particular, Pierpaolo Rotondi, Technical Director of Decathlon International, and Ferdinando Cannella, Head of the Industrial Robotics Unit of the Italian Institute of Technology, together with Alberto Landini of Stam, presented SOFTMANBOT project and some ongoing activities for the automation of the most critical tasks in the manufacturing process of garments and technical articles with the clear vision of bringing back to Europe and Italy some activities that had been delocalized abroad in recent years.