The brain drain continues: 35 'grants' won, but only 23 remain in Italy

Italy continues to export high-value brains. The confirmation comes from the results of the Erc Advanced grant that has just been released. With 35 scientists receiving the Erc's flagship grant (2.5 million for five years plus an additional million for non-EU nationals who decide to move to the Old Continent) out of 281 prize-winners, our country confirms its second place in terms of nationality of winners behind Denmark, which boasts 56. Just like the Danes, however, we do not manage to retain all our best intelligences.

There are only 23 senior researchers who have chosen Italy as the location for their studies. In practice, we have a gap of -12 brains. So much so that if we go to the ranking of host countries, we go from second to third.
Better than us are the United Kingdom, with 56 hosts compared to 26 awardees, and Germany, which instead wins 35 compared to 45 German Advanced Grant winners. Better off are France, with 22 chosen and 23 hosted, and Holland (24 hosted and 21 awarded). Numbers that confirm, as we told your time, the weakness of our country when it comes to attracting researchers who are already ahead in years and careers.

The last grant round attracted 2,534 proposals, of which over 11% were selected for funding. It is estimated that the grants will create around 2,700 jobs in the teams of the new grantees.

Their work will cover a wide range of topics: from developing a preventive vaccine for hereditary breast cancer to studying how diet and exercise affect age-related brain cells, from creating artificial intelligence digital twins that mirror and enhance human thinking and social skills to exploring the hidden oceans on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

Commenting on the results, the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva, recalled that, already with the next call for proposals, "scientists moving to Europe will receive even more support in setting up their laboratories and research groups. This is part of our 'Choose Europe for Science' initiative, designed to attract and retain the world's best scientists'.
As we reported in Il Sole 24 Ore on 25 May to attract researchers fleeing the US after the Trump administration's cuts, the announcement of the next Advanced Grants expiring on 28 August will see the amount of the additional contribution rise from one to two million and, therefore, the value of the entire 'grant' to 4.5 million.