Another Italian paradox: although Italy has increased its spending on research and development to €29.4 billion, it remains stuck at 1.37% of GDP, well below the European average of around 2.2%, and far from countries such as Germany or Finland, which exceed 3%. To understand this paradox, we need the right perspective: what should draw our attention is not the nominal increase in R&D spending, but the actual increase in relation to the country’s GDP. In fact, this share grew slowly from 2010 to 2023, reaching the aforementioned value of 1.37%. As if that were not enough, from an employment perspective as well, the gap between our country and the European average is significant: there are 7 researchers for every 1,000 employed people in Italy, compared with around 10 in the EU. This shows that the problem is not limited to “how much we spend”, but also concerns the labour market. To cite another important statistic, Eurostat reports that in 2023 the EU had around 2.15 million researchers, of whom only 170,000 were Italian.

Let us now return to Italy and answer some fundamental questions that can help us better understand the criticism just outlined. First of all, what is the real purpose of spending on research and development? R&D funding should support the growth of the Italian state across several sectors, such as industrial production, medicine and artificial intelligence. And who are the main contributors? Companies certainly rank first, financing around 51.1% of the total share, with a value reaching €15 billion. In second place, perhaps surprisingly, we find public institutions, which contribute up to 36.9%. This percentage shows that the State finances more than one third of Italian R&D. Another very striking figure: public institutions fund 88.7% of their own R&D, but also 80.9% of university R&D and 43.7% of R&D in the non-profit sector. Public funding is therefore decisive, especially for universities, public bodies and basic research. This is followed by foreign funders, with €2.9 billion. All the sources of funding just mentioned recorded an increase in spending from 2022 to 2023 and a further increase from 2024 to 2025, ranging from 3.6% for companies to 11.7% for the public sector, whose short-term expansion is the most significant compared with that of companies. The other crucial piece of information is who benefits from these investments and who truly contributes to the creation of new technologies and knowledge: unsurprisingly, companies rank first, followed by universities, with 25% of the total, and then public institutions.

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In addition to discussing R&D data, meaning actual spending on research and development, we can also briefly focus on GBARD, Government Budget Allocations for Research and Development, namely public budget allocations for research and development. This shows that the overall amount is around €13.5 billion, with about 40% allocated to universities through the FFO, the Ordinary Financing Fund. Public spending funds are therefore essential and represent the main source of support for Italian state universities, together with student fees. More specifically, the FFO acts as the backbone for financing teaching, research and the operation of university facilities. It amounts to around €9.4 billion per year, according to 2025 data, which is €336 million more than the amount allocated in 2024. In addition, the Ministry allocates further funds for university construction and infrastructure, so that teaching facilities are safe and suitable for learning. Besides the share allocated to universities, GBARD also devotes 13.4% to the exploration and use of space, 11.9% to the protection and promotion of human health, and around 10% to industrial production and technology.

Edited by Ottilia Ogliari

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