In the field of research and technological innovation,Italy it is below the average of the main European countries. As emerges from a recent study by the Observatory of Italian public accounts, led by Carlo Cottarelli, "despite the slight increase in recent years, due to the resources allocated by companies", the spending on research and development of our country "remains much lower than the EU average". Between public and private investments, in fact, Italy earmarks for this purpose little more than1% of GDP, i.e. less than half of the Germany, which exceeds 3%. It also stays away France, which comes close to 2,5%.
Research and technological innovation: the Pnrr is not enough to bridge the gap with France and Germany
To bridge the gap with Berlin and Paris, not even the resources allocated with the Recovery and Resilience Plan will be enough. Tables in hand, the Pnrr allocates 12,9 billion to the "From Research to Business" component, but "of these only 5,9-6,5 billion they translate into spending on Research and Development”, explains the Observatory.
Italy also behind on patents
Not only that: our country is also struggling on the front of patents. "Italy has little patent activity compared to other industrialized countries", continues the study, which cites the European Patent Office (EPO) as a source, according to which "in 2021 companies and entities resident in Italy submitted 4.919 applications for the registration of patents, i.e. 2,6% of total applications".
The Italian data “is higher than that of the Spain (1%), but lower than that of France (5,6%) and much lower than the Germany (13,8%)”. If we exclude the United States and Asian countries, which account for the majority of applications, Italy is in seventh place for applications filed.
However, "normalizing the number of patents for the population - and thus obtaining a measure of technological intensity - Italy is in eleventh place among European countries, ahead of Spain, but far behind the Scandinavian and European countries center”, continues the Observatory.
Patents: Italy's sectors of specialization
In detail, Italy is mainly specialized in two sectors:
- transport (vehicle components and railway systems), for which 4,3% of the applications presented are of Italian origin, in seventh place overall and fourth excluding non-European countries;
- "other special machinery” (agricultural, textile, food, paper, plastic, etc.), where Italy accounts for 5% and is in fifth place worldwide (in third place excluding non-European countries).
