Chapter 1 of the “Report on research and innovation in Italy” is dedicated to Italian participation in the European Framework Programs, which have been studied using data extracted from EUPRO database, one of the facilities available through the distributed research infrastructure RISIS. It is well known that research and innovation have great benefits from collaborative programs. This work occurs at a special moment: the eighth Framework Program, Horizon 2020 (2014-2020), will come shortly to a conclusion, while the next Horizon Europe Framework Program (2021-2027) is already at an advanced stage of design. Not enough, the Brexit will accompany the transition between H2020 and Horizon Europe Framework Program. The analysis shows that Italy continues to be a dynamic participant in the first three-year period of Horizon 2020 (2014-2017), achieving 8.1% of funding, although it is still at a considerable distance from the main European countries such as Germany (16.4%), the United Kingdom (14%) and France (10.5%). It is important highlight that Spain (9.8%) has had a greater funding than Italy. Italy contributes to the 12.5% to the overall budget of the EU-28 Framework Programs, but has received back only 8.7% of funding. Furthermore, the success rate of projects presented by Italy is only 7.5%, compared to the average of Horizon 2020 equal to 13%. Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) the chapter also shows the most important and the most actively engaged participants (public and private organizations) in the last three Framework Programs (FP6, FP7 and H2020). It is possible to identify what are the organizations that play a central role in the development of European research groups and what is the relative leadership capacity of each group, that allows to understand how to increase the success rate of submitted proposals. To sum up, to overcome the structural weakness of Italy it is useful to increase investment in R&D (in particular in the public sector), to promote the circulation of knowledge through measures for the international mobility of doctoral students and researchers in the post-doc period and to promote specific financing tools for young researchers.

Capter 1 in Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (2019) "Relazione sulla ricerca e l'innovazione in Italia. Analisi e dati di politica della scienza e della tecnologia. Seconda Edizione. Ottobre 2019". http://www.dsu.cnr.it/relazione-ricerca-innovazione-2019/volume/Relazione_sulla_ricerca_e_innovazione_in_Italia_2019_webformat.pdf