Ricerca teorica vs. ricerca applicata. Un’analisi relativa al Cnr
[Fundemental research vs. applied research. An analysis concerning the Italian National Research Council]
 

Mario Coccia e Secondo Rolfo
(Ceris-CNR)

Abstract. Within the current debate about the role of public research in the modern societies and the relations between public and private research, there is an increasing interest towards a possible rivalry between fundamental and applied research. Some preoccupations arise from the fact that the strong pressure on public researchers in order to increase their involvement in the economic applications could limit the amount and the quality of the fundamental research. The policy implications of this rivalry  need strong arguments, but at the moment no clear answer can be found in the economic literature. In this light the paper studies for the period 2000-2003 the situation within the Italian National Research Council using the data concerning the 108 institutes (grouped in 5 scientific areas). The international publications have been considered a good proxy of fundamental research against the funds provided by the market considered as a clear indicator of the applied research. The results seem to highlight for 4 scientific areas an increasing rivalry probably caused by the cut of public funding in the period that obliged the researchers to pay more attention to applied research.

Keywords: Applied research, fundamental research, scientific publications, technology transfer, R&D evaluation, public research labs

SCARICA QUESTO WP

Il presente lavoro è il proseguimento della ricerca, iniziata nel 1998, che analizza l’attività degli istituti del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). Un ringraziamento doveroso va a Fabrizio Tuzi del Dast-CNR per aver messo a disposizione i dati, a Graziano Abrate dell’Università di Pavia per gli utili suggerimenti e a Diego Margon del Ceris-CNR per il supporto informatico nella fase di elaborazione dei dati. Siamo inoltre riconoscenti  a Maria Zittino e Silvana Zelli, che con pazienza e precisione hanno curato l’editing del lavoro.