The Europe 2020 strategy, proposed by the European Commission in 2010 for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, has set the goal of investing 3% of GDP in R&D for the European Union by 2020. All Italy was asked to contribute with an investment equal to 1.5% of the national gross domestic product. According to the most recent Eurostat data, in 2019 the only member countries to reach the target set by the European Commission were: Sweden with 3.4% of GDP, Austria and Germany with 3.2% and Denmark at 3%. The EU average, as of 2019, stood at 2.1% of GDP. Italy is among the countries that fund scientific research the least, as it invests 1.4% of GDP, a much lower share than the European average and the OECD average (2.5%). A figure that places us twenty-sixth in the world ranking, behind Israel, South Korea, Germany and France but also to Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
The target of 3% of continental GDP invested in innovation had already appeared an illusion in 2010 and this had prompted the European institutions to postpone it to 2020 but also this time it seems far to be achieved.
What is the secret of the countries that have made it? Of course there is not only one, but we can observe some data collected by Observa Science in Society in the Yearbook Science, Technology and Society 2022 (ed. Il Mulino), presented on Wednesday 23 February at the University of Turin, to understand the different structures and the heterogeneity that characterize the Member States of the Union. It is worth starting from the analysis of human resources which cannot be ignored.
Sweden invests 5.5% of GDP in education, Denmark 5.2, while Italy 4.1%. Investment in education is directly reflected in the number of undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students. 38.3% of Swedish citizens aged 15 to 64 have a degree or a PhD. In Denmark they are 33.7% and in Germany 27.2%. Italy is in the penultimate place (17.9%). Sweden is also the first European country – and the second in the world – in terms of the number of researchers employed per thousand inhabitants (15.2). The European average is 8.9, while in Italy it is 6.3.
Among the countries that have reached the target of 3% of GDP invested in R&D, Germany is the country with the largest number of university teachers under the age of 40 (47.3%). Denmark has 36%, while Italy is in last place in Europe with 12.9%. The Germans also lead the ranking of countries that have obtained the most funding from the Horizon2020 framework program and are in second place for funding allocated by the European Research Council (ERC), the program of excellence funded by the European Commission.
According to the data presented by the 2022 Yearbook, Sweden is also in first place in the ranking of the most innovative European countries drawn up by the Innovation Union Scoreboard, the tool developed by the European Commission that analyzes innovation trends for each Member State. Denmark is in third and Germany in sixth. It’s Italy? It is only thirteenth and remains a “moderate innovator”, with an index below the European average. A delay that also affects international patent applications: needless to say, Germany and Sweden are in the top ten of the countries that have submitted the most international patent applications in 2020. Italy, also in this case, is out of the top ten locations.
In 1945, the engineer Vannevar Bush – head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Second World War and advisor to the President of the United States – advocated a massive investment by the state in research, as a “lever for economic, health and military of nations “. A country, in order to prosper economically and culturally, – Bush argued – needs constant scientific and technological innovation, which creates sustainable wealth and well-paid work in high-tech industries. A reflection that is still relevant. With Horizon Europe, the new research funding framework program, the European Union has allocated 100 billion euros to scientific research and innovation from 2021 to 2027. To this must be added the resources allocated for the restart after the Covid emergency -19. The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) therefore presents itself as an opportunity to try to bridge a historical delay. The total investment planned for the Mission dedicated to research exceeds 9 billion. All that remains is to hope that the loans are disbursed on the basis of a culture of merit and responsibility that go to recognize virtuous behavior, productivity and transparent management. The road to competitiveness also passes from here.