Panel 1
Giovanni Finocchiaro, Mariangela Soraci
The 2022 update highlights the continued recovery of intramural Research and Development (R&D) expenditure by industrial enterprises, reaching €11.39 billion (+3.1% compared to 2021), surpassing for the first time the pre-pandemic peak of 2019. Almost all of this expenditure (98.9%) continues to be borne by the manufacturing sector, while the contribution of extractive activities, energy supply, and waste management services accounts for just 1.1%. Over the decade 2012–2022, total investment grew by more than a third (+36.6%), as shown in Table 1. When related to GDP, the share stood at approximately 1.31% in 2023 (1.37% in 2022), a level that keeps Italy below the euro area average and behind its main European industrial partners.
The indicator reports the value of intramural expenditure by industrial enterprises (narrow definition of industry) on Research & Development (R&D) activities, including basic research, applied research, and experimental development.
R&D activity is defined as the set of creative work undertaken systematically to increase the stock of knowledge—including knowledge of humanity, culture, and society—and to use this knowledge for new applications.
Intramural expenditure refers to R&D expenses incurred by enterprises using their own personnel and equipment (external projects are excluded). This includes both current expenditures (personnel costs + purchase of goods and services) and capital expenditures.
The expenditures incurred by industrial enterprises for Research & Development represent a source of information for assessing their capacity for technological advancement and competitive innovation.
In recent years, the regulatory framework supporting industrial R&D investment has been consolidated on three complementary levels:
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At the European level, Regulation (EU) No. 995/2012 remains binding, requiring Member States to collect and transmit harmonized data on R&D spending. The Horizon Europe framework programme, established by Regulation (EU) 2021/695, defines thematic priorities and funding mechanisms aimed at driving an increasing share of private investment.
The implementation of the “new European Research Area” was formalized with Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/2022, reaffirming the shared target of allocating 3% of the Union’s GDP to research and innovation by 2030—a goal to which Italy contributes with a national commitment of 1.53% of GDP.
Starting in 2023, the European Chips Act (Regulation 2023/1782) introduced new incentives and public-private partnerships in the semiconductor sector, further strengthening the connection between EU industrial policy and domestic R&D spending. -
At the national level, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) and the National Research Programme 2021–2027—updated in 2023—mobilize resources and tax credits that directly support enterprise investments. These instruments ensure consistency with European strategy and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 9: “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.”
This combination of EU and national instruments establishes both the statistical obligations and the quantitative and qualitative targets that shape the dynamics of R&D spending in the industrial sector, making the indicator a key reference for monitoring progress toward innovation-based growth and technological competitiveness.
Panel 2
ISTAT. Statistical Survey on Research and Development in Enterprises. Available at: https://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/visualizza.do?id=5000075
ISTAT. Statistical Reports, various years, “Research and Development in Italy”
Eurostat. Statistics Explained, various years, “Expenditure on Environmental Protection”
OECD. (2002, first edition 1964). Frascati Manual: Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys on Research and Experimental Development
R&D expenditure is not necessarily positively correlated with improved environmental performance of businesses: it spans various scientific and technical disciplines, which may have a positive, neutral, or negative impact, and such effects may materialize only in the long term. The indicator is classified as a "Response" type according to the DPSIR model, but this classification applies solely to the portion of R&D expenditure that demonstrably contributes to environmental protection. However, with the current methodology for data collection, this portion cannot be distinguished from the overall aggregate. As such, the indicator should be interpreted as purely contextual.
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Data quality assessment
EUROSTAT – Statistical Office of the European Communities, ISTAT – Italian National Institute of Statistics
ISTAT Official Database
Data source: https://dati.istat.it
Path: Enterprises / Research and Development / Expenditure
Eurostat Data Browser
Data source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser
Path: Science, technology, digital society / Science and technology / Research and development (R&D) / Research and development expenditure, by sectors of performance
National
2012-2021; forecasts for 2022-2023
Indicator assessment
The base data used for building tables and charts derive from official Istat and Eurostat statistics and are presented as-is or with minimal elaboration, such as percentage change calculations.
In 2022, intra-muros R&D expenditure of businesses in the industrial sector totaled €11.39 billion, an increase of €348 million (+3.1%) compared to 2021 (Table 2). Of this, 98.9% was attributable to manufacturing activities (€11.27 billion), while the remainder came from extractive industries and energy, gas, water, and waste management services (€0.13 billion) (Table 1). The main funding source continues to be self-financing by companies (90.5% of the total), with contributions from the “rest of the world” amounting to 6.8% (Table 2); data from public institutions, universities, and non-profits are not publishable due to confidentiality constraints.
Relative to GDP, R&D spending in 2023 stands at approximately 1.31%, confirming the gap with Germany (around 3.11%), France (around 2.19%), and the Eurozone average (around 2.25%), as shown in Table 4 and Figure 3.
From an environmental perspective, the overall increase in expenditure has not yet resulted in a clear shift toward low-emission technologies: the majority of spending remains concentrated in the chemical and metallurgical sectors, which carry potentially high environmental impacts. However, the slight contraction of investment in more energy-intensive activities suggests an initial shift toward more efficient, less impactful processes—an encouraging sign, but insufficient to define the current status as “positive” in terms of climate neutrality goals.
Between 2012 and 2022, internal R&D investment in the industrial sector rose by 36.6%, from €8.34 to €11.39 billion (Table 1). After a contraction in 2020 (–4.3% from 2019) due to the pandemic, the 2021–2022 biennium saw a cumulative recovery of 6.4%, pushing spending above pre-crisis levels (Table 1). This trend was driven by the manufacturing sector (Figure 1), which grew by 3.7% in the last year, while extractive and utility activities declined by 35.5% (Table 1).
R&D expenditure as a share of GDP rose gradually until 2020 (1.51%) but declined over the following three years, reaching around 1.31% in 2023. In the medium term, a significant divergence is observed: while total spending increases, material-intensive sectors regress—suggesting a gradual reallocation toward potentially more sustainable supply chains.
Nevertheless, the convergence pace remains modest, and the gap with the EU’s 3% of GDP R&D target (with a focus on green innovation) set by the Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/2122 on the “Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe” highlights the need for a significant acceleration to align with the EU’s environmental ambitions.
Data
Table 1: In-house Research & Development Expenditure by Enterprises in the Manufacturing Industry (2012–2022)
ISPRA elaboration on ISTAT data
The evaluation is at current prices. The source of funding is the total economy.
Table 2: R&D Expenditure of the Manufacturing Industry by Source of Funding (2012–2022)
ISPRA elaboration based on ISTAT data
c: data redacted for statistical confidentiality protection
Evaluations at current prices.
Table 3: In-house R&D expenditure of industrial enterprises by economic activity sector (2012-2022)
ISPRA elaborations based on ISTAT data
Valuations at current prices
Table 4: R&D expenditure of enterprises as a percentage of GDP, major industrialized countries and European geopolitical aggregates (2012-2023)
ISPRA elaboration based on EUROSTAT data
b: break in the time series; e: estimated data; p: provisional data
Figure 1: In-house R&D expenditure of enterprises in the narrow sense of industry (2012-2022)
ISPRA elaboration based on ISTAT data
The valuation is at current prices. The source of funding is the total economy.
Figure 2: In-house R&D expenditure of industrial enterprises by economic activity sector (2012-2022)
ISPRA elaboration based on ISTAT data
Valuations at current prices.
Figure 3: R&D expenditure of enterprises as a percentage of GDP, major industrialized countries and European geopolitical aggregates (2012-2023).
ISPRA elaboration based on EUROSTAT data.
In 2022, the chemical sector remained the leading recipient of R&D investment, with €529 million allocated (+3.3% from 2021 and +49.7% from 2012), underscoring the critical role of chemistry—including fine and specialty chemicals—in the development of new technological solutions.
It was followed by metal products (€328 million, –10.2%), non-metallic minerals—cement, glass, ceramics (€124 million, –10.0%), metallurgy (€85 million, –9.4%), and the paper industry (€64 million, –4.9%). Extractive activities saw a sharp drop to €18 million (–74.8%), continuing a trend observed in 2020 (Table 3).
In 2022, nearly half (around 46%) of R&D expenditure in the environmental sectors listed in Table 3 was concentrated in the chemical industry, while the combined share of the most material- and energy-intensive sectors (non-metallic minerals, metallurgy, metal products, paper, and extraction) fell to 54%, significantly down from 2012.
Cross-referencing these figures with the structure of funding sources (Table 2), it emerges that self-financing is primarily directed toward high-tech activities, leaving traditional sectors in the background.
This gradual rebalancing—if oriented toward clean technologies and process efficiency—may help reduce the industry’s environmental footprint. However, for this potential to result in measurable outcomes—and to close the gap with the EU average highlighted in Table 4—there is a need to strengthen targeted incentives (such as “green” tax credits and Horizon Europe partnerships) and to link new PNRR resources to eco-innovation projects.