1,520 specialist training grants for the non-medical healthcare sector are on the way

There are 1,520 scholarships for admission to postgraduate schools in the non-medical healthcare sector for the 2025/2026 academic year. The Minister for Universities and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, has signed the decree allocating places amongst the universities. This marks the final stage of a complex process which also involved the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and represents the first application of the new planning system for non-medical healthcare specialisations.

The grants are for training programmes aimed at biologists, chemists, pharmacists, physicists, dentists, vets and psychologists – professionals who are playing an increasingly strategic role in the running of the National Health Service.

The allocation was determined on the basis of the universities’ training capacity and the healthcare system’s stated need for specialists, with the aim of ensuring the smooth start of the programmes and the continuity of specialist training.

“This decree is not an end in itself, but the start of a journey,” said Minister Anna Maria Bernini. ‘Efforts are already focused on further strengthening specialist training in the non-medical healthcare sector, with the aim of gradually expanding access opportunities, updating criteria that are now outdated, and ensuring, as early as the next academic year, more timely planning that is fully aligned with the needs of the healthcare system.’

The measure also opens up the possibility of increasing the total number of places. Regions, autonomous provinces and other public or private bodies will in fact be able to fund additional specialisation scholarships, whilst universities, within the limits of their training capacity, will also be able to admit eligible candidates without a scholarship.