Italy to Launch National Agency for Research

The country’s new government appears to have heard the call from academics for an independent body to distribute federal research funds.

Written byJef Akst

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Just two months after Italy underwent a crisis of government and established an alliance between two leading political parties, the left-of-center Democratic Party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, the country has announced plans to start a National Agency for Research to help oversee the distribution of federal funds.

“Almost every country has at least one agency of this kind. Except for Italy, which has now decided to set it up,” Nicola Bellomo, president of an organization called Gruppo 2003 that campaigns for change in Italy’s academic system, tells Times Higher Education (THE). “This is undoubtedly good news.”

Currently, research funding is allotted by individual ministries, such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Education, University and Research. With a preliminary annual budget of €300 million (more than $330 million US), some of which is new money and some of ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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