Rome, October 30 (askanews) – Over 1.300 researchers involved, 113 participating companies, 823 interviews conducted, and a satisfaction rate exceeding 94%. These are some of the figures that emerged from the impact evaluation report of the PNRR Placement Program, presented today during the opening plenary session of the 17th edition of the Research Exchange Forum, promoted by the Emblema Foundation and co-organized with the University of Catania.
The event, hosted at the Benedictine Monastery, highlighted the competitiveness of businesses and the development of research doctors, focusing on the role of highly qualified human capital as a strategic lever for the country's innovation and growth. The Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, officially opened the event: "The Research Exchange demonstrates every year that technology transfer is not an abstract concept, and the 231 university spin-offs that have participated in the last three years, a third of which are from Southern Italy, demonstrate a country where research can generate business in every region.
Today, global competition is played out on technology, and in this challenge, having highly qualified human capital is the true strategic raw material, and our country needs young talent more than ever. Since the beginning of the legislature, he added, the Government has been active on multiple fronts, and to incentivize businesses, we have allocated €31 million for the Patents+, Designs+, and Trademarks+ measures.
"Companies that invest in a PhD," the Minister concluded in a video sent to the audience, "are not simply incurring a cost, but are making an important choice that looks to the future not only of their own business, but also of our Italy and our Europe." The Report's data illustrates the impact of the Placement Program, the program created by the Emblema Foundation to guide PhD students, postdocs, and researchers involved in projects under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan into the world of work. Between July 2024 and April 2026, the Program supported PhD students, postdocs, and researchers from PNRR projects towards the job market through orientation, coaching, assessment, and matching with companies. A total of 117 recruiting days, 10 virtual career days, 97 coaching days, 78 assessment centers, 36 self-entrepreneurship sessions, and 284 individual orientation sessions were held across 24 Italian cities. The program's participants included 1.356 researchers and PhDs, primarily from the technical-scientific (50,8%) and medical-health (20,7%) fields, who were involved in activities to bring them into contact with the manufacturing world. On the business front, the Program saw the participation of 113 companies, operating mainly in the Industry 4.0 and manufacturing (35,5%), ICT (26,8%) and Healthcare-Life Science (23,2%) sectors. Particularly significant is the data relating to the matching between supply and demand of skills: within the nine Placement Programs, 823 interviews were organized between researchers and companies. Furthermore, 75,4% of participants stated they had at least one interview and, of these, 65,6% received positive feedback or the prospect of further contact from the companies. The report also highlights a high level of satisfaction. 94,9% of researchers would recommend the PNRR Placement Program to a colleague, while companies showed particularly high appreciation for the quality of the profiles encountered. Indeed, 85,6% of companies that had already participated in other PhD-focused recruiting initiatives believed that the profiles they encountered through the Program were superior to those they had encountered in other similar experiences. "The results of the PNRR Placement Program," comments Tommaso Aiello, President of the Emblema Foundation, "demonstrate that when research and business are enabled to communicate, concrete opportunities arise for talent and the country's competitiveness. Our commitment now is to involve institutions, universities, and businesses to make these paths of encounter and valorization of highly qualified human capital structural. This result confirms the growing attention of the manufacturing sector towards the advanced skills generated by public research and the value of initiatives capable of building stable bridges between universities and businesses. The round table discussion on the relationship between business competitiveness and the valorization of PhDs followed, featuring representatives from institutions, academia, and the national manufacturing system. The Research Exchange represents an important opportunity to strengthen the dialogue between universities and the manufacturing sector, transforming scientific expertise and research results into innovation and development opportunities. As the University of Catania, we are investing in an open innovation model that will make this collaboration increasingly structured and continuous. "The new digital platform dedicated to the Third Mission, developed with the Emblema Foundation, fits in with this direction," said Enrico Foti, Rector of the University of Catania, "to facilitate the matching of scientific expertise with business needs." Our goal is to enhance research and, above all, human capital, creating qualified professional opportunities for young talent. It's a priority of our Study and Work in Sicily program: helping build a region capable not only of training outstanding talent, but also of offering them concrete prospects for growth and professional fulfillment. After the opening day, the Research Exchange got into full swing with over 1.500 matching events between more than 100 companies, organizations, and investors and 50 university delegations from the world of academic research. The final day was dedicated to startup and spin-off pitches, with 38 innovative companies from across Italy presenting their technologies, patents, and business models to businesses, investors, and innovation ecosystem operators. A concrete opportunity to foster new collaborations and accelerate the growth of young, knowledge-intensive businesses. Among the event's most anticipated moments were the BdR Awards 2026, where some of the most important companies present recognized the projects deemed most promising in terms of innovation potential and technology transfer prospects. Barilla awarded the prize to PlantZCare, a spin-off of the Polytechnic University of Turin that develops wearable sensors for real-time monitoring of crop health; NTET Group awarded BIOGEAR from the MOST Foundation; StarTime chose Ichnovia from Sapienza University of Rome; while EssilorLuxottica recognized Carbonhub, an initiative of the University of Parma dedicated to research and advanced applications of carbon-based nanomaterials; and Giuliani SpA awarded Dethenco of the University of Siena, a company committed to developing innovative solutions for the life sciences sector. In addition to these, the recognition awarded by the Emblema Foundation through the StarTime acceleration program to Ichnovia of Sapienza University of Rome was awarded for the development and industrial valorization potential of the project proposal. The three-day event transformed Catania into a national laboratory for open innovation, involving over 500 participants including companies, universities, research centers, startups, spin-offs, investors, and institutions. These numbers translated into more than 1.500 one-to-one meetings, confirming the effectiveness of a format capable of generating opportunities for collaboration, technology transfer, and development. The 2026 edition strengthens the role of the Research Exchange as a national reference point for the valorization of research results and for dialogue between the academic world and the productive system. A mission that, year after year, continues to foster new partnerships, investments, and innovation paths, contributing to the country's competitiveness.
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