Italy

Governance of research and innovation (R&I) policy in Italy is the responsibility of the Ministry for Education, University and Research (MIUR), together with the Ministry for Economic Development (MISE) and the Agency for Digital Italy, under the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. However, within the framework of the concurrency principle, the regions can intervene in STI governance and develop their own initiatives. National Technological Clusters have been established as platforms of soft governance aimed at achieving public-public coordination (state, regions and local administrations) and public-private objectives. They are in charge of redefining research strategies and technology roadmaps shared on a national level. The MIUR issued a provision to assign USD 359 million PPP (EUR 266 million) to 30 projects for the development and enhancement of eight National Technological Clusters. The objective is to build large aggregates of competences on a national scale that are consistent with the priorities of EU’s framework programme Horizon 2020. To achieve this objective, a permanent coordination table has been established in 2015 comprising all clusters and the MIUR and MISE. To align the national R&I priorities with Horizon 2020, the document Horizon 2020 Italy (HIT2020) was published in March 2013. The document is addressed to all Italian R&I stakeholders and provides guidelines on the national assets to be exploited, the priority research areas for investment and the strategic partnerships needed to promote international cooperation on R&I. Finally, a major reform of Italy’s public administration was approved in 2014, eliminating delays in procedures between government agencies so as to make public procurement more efficient. As part of this reform, MIUR was reorganised to improve institutional capacity.

In the framework of the European Digital Agenda, Italy has developed a national strategy for fostering its digital culture and economy. The aforementioned Agency for Digital Italy (Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale) was established in March 2012, and the Council of Ministers launched the Digital Growth Strategy (Strategia per la crescita digitale 2014-20) to make ultra-broadband subscriptions more attractive. Particular emphasis has been placed on the next Italia Log In platform. This tool will group all public administration services for citizens and enterprises in a “one-stop shop”, and will be open for contributions from all the public administration agencies.

While business enterprise R&D expenditure (BERD) as a share of GDP is quite low, innovation outputs in terms of international patenting and trademark registration are only slightly below the OECD medians. The Italian business sector accounts for barely over half of GERD, a low share for an industrialised economy. A set of innovative firms coexists with a large majority of small and micro enterprises with low productivity. The Italian government has deployed a broad range of financial tools to support business R&D and innovation. Although the same policy emphasis is placed on every type of policy instrument, priority has recently been given to reforming the tax portfolio. The 2015 Stability Law (L190/2014) introduced a 25% tax credit, granted on incremental investments in R&I incurred by enterprises during the period 2015-19. The tax credit is increased to 50% if new investments are related to hiring highly qualified personnel. As part of the same Stability Law, the government has granted a total of USD 4.7 billion PPP (EUR 3.5 billion) in fiscal incentives to private employers who permanently hire new personnel. The Stability Law also reduces the regional tax on productive activities. Similarly, the Patent Box (Ministerial Decree of 30 July 2015) provides incentives through an optional system of taxation for income derived from the use of intellectual property, industrial patents, trademarks, designs and processes in legally protectable fields in industry, commerce and science.

Italy has one of the lowest shares of tertiary qualified adults and of technology-problem-solving skilled adults among OECD countries, and its tertiary education expenditure is also very low. The country faces a dearth of highly skilled human resources, in part because the most qualified may find better opportunities abroad. The poor correspondence between the education system and the labour market underscores a structural mismatch. To tackle this, the action plan for future youth employment, Italia 2020, aims to align higher education curricula better with the changing demands of industry and to promote technical vocational education. Furthermore, in 2015 the government approved a new set of measures aimed at modernising the national education system. As part of the Stability Law 2015, a new fund La Buona Scuola was created to invest USD 1.35 billion PPP (EUR 1 billion) in 2015 and USD 4.1 billion PPP (EUR 3 billion) in 2016 to strengthen school-work alternation and the training of school principals and to create a specific plan for teacher recruitment. In the framework of the new Partnership Agreement between Italy and the European Commission, the National Operational Programme for Schools (2014-20) funds infrastructure for education and institutional capacity with a budget of USD 4 billion PPP (EUR 3 billion). Since the university reform in 2010, significant efforts have also been made to support researchers’ careers. A reform of doctoral education has focused on a stimulating research environment, collaborative doctorates and internationalisation. In 2015, the government provided USD 7 million PPP (EUR 5 million) for the continuation of the Programme for young researchers, initiating research programmes at Italian universities. The National Research Programme (NRP) (2015-20) that was launched in 2015 dedicates over 40% of its USD 3.3 billion PPP (EUR 2.5 billion) endowment to the priority of human capital, with the purpose of increasing the number of researchers and PhD graduates in Italy, as well as attracting the best talents from abroad.