Fiat, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, was established in 1899 by a group of entrepreneurs which included Giovanni Agnelli. Since then FIAT has become a major international group of companies focusing on industrial activities in the transport sector present in more than 160 countries and employing more than 162,000 people. Fiat Spa stocks are quoted at the Milan stock exchange and are exchanged in Frankfurt, Paris and London Centro Ricerche Fiat S.C.p.A. was constituted in 1976 as reference centre for the activities of innovation and research of Fiat Group. Then it became a consortium (in the Italian legal form of “Società Consortile per Azioni”) participated by the Group’s Companies. Besides the headquarters in Orbassano (Torino), three branches (Valenzano - Ba, Trento and Foggia)and a controlled company (Udine) were set. In approximately 30 years, CRF achieved the threshold of 1000 partners from the Industry and 150 from the Academia, all around the world. This stable and tough network reinforces the global strategies of innovation, allows the execution of specific operative activities at local level, ensures the creation of competences and the endless monitoring of the business environment. Thanks to the effort of its researchers, CRF in 2007 had more than 760 inventions covered by more than 2000 patents.