“We need to bring ideas to the market,” he says Luigi Nicolais, president of the Cotec Foundation, the organization that awards the 'Premio dei Premi' innovation prize.
Is Italy at a turning point in the field of research? The questions that have been open for years with declining budgets and the precariousness of thousands of researchers according to the Minister Anna Maria Bernini si are resolved. Bernini says that PNRR funds “have brought Italian research to life golden age". An optimism that however sees Italy in 11th place in the Patent Index 2022, the annual ranking of European patents.
The development and filing of a patent mean a lot or little, but technologies grow if they are supported by investments and experiments. And here Italy is not a shining star. In the energy and environmental fields, except for ancient tradition excellence, we are not in pole position.
The Prize of Prizes is organized by the Cotec Foundation with the permission of the President of the Republic. The 23rd edition was held at the CNR headquarters 43 awards to innovation researchers.
Regarding the PNRR funds, the Minister underlined that they brought about "a 10-year leap forward, for example in the gene therapies available today". “
Rewards and trips of no return
“Innovation is not a technology but a change of mentality, a new strategy that allows us to change the past for the better,” adds Nicolais. For the former Minister "be a researcher it is very different from being an innovator, research moves the threshold of knowledge. The innovator needs to do good research but his goal is to bring an idea to the market."
The prizes were awarded to innovative projects for artificial intelligence, the enhancement of human resources and cyber security.
Should the country feel satisfied by the exclusive competition of these deserving young people? Of course not, even more so if, as stated in the "White Paper on Life Sciences in Italy" of the European House - Ambrosetti study, 86% of Italian researchers complain low wages and not very competitive with foreign countries. 80% regret the lack of meritocracy and 8 out of ten of those who they go abroad they say they will not return to Italy. Trips to brilliant careers and to places where the dignity of the scholar is immediately recognized.
Technological research has little impact on the productive fabric and energy transition, spending - according to Enea - is just 0,9% of GDP. This is how Italy competes in the world.
