Science and Health

Human Technopole, National Platforms at the Crossroads of Research Excellence

The Institute has the 'credentials' to position itself as a central hub also thanks to the collaboration of the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors

by Filippo Mancia *

28 May 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Despite many years abroad, I will always be Italian. Italians abroad often do not consider themselves 'brain drain': we feel a duty to give back to our country. It is an honour for me to be able to contribute, even in a small way, to the Italian research system.

The Platforms

Since 2024 I have had the privilege of coordinating a group of international scientists: nine people - including three Italians abroad - selected to be part of the independent Commission in charge of assessing the projects of scientists working in Italia. The goal is access to the National Platforms of Human Technopole, the Institute for Life Sciences in the MIND area of Milan, which brings together expertise and advanced technologies in its laboratories.

The National Platforms are jewels, unique on the national, if not international scene: state-of-the-art scientific infrastructures, globally competitive, managed by highly qualified personnel, made available to the Italian scientific community with government subsidised access.

The access rules

Our first meetings were devoted to defining the rules of access. How to ensure a rigorous and impartial evaluation for each proposed discipline and experiment? It was stimulating work, bringing together the perspectives of researchers from different fields and with different experiences.

We were inspired by two references of excellence: the European Research Council and the National Institutes of Health in the USA. Scientific merit first, then innovation, feasibility and impact. The ambition was to be fast without ever sacrificing quality. Today we go from project submission to the start of experiments in 8-12 weeks and we are constantly improving.

The results

The results speak for themselves. From June 2024 to date: 585 proposals evaluated, 297 projects approved, 35% by junior researchers, 17 Italian regions involved. The National Platforms have rapidly reached their maximum capacity and this has made the process more competitive. The success rate is stabilising at around 30%, a balance that I consider healthy: selective enough to guarantee quality, but not so low as to introduce excessive randomness.

A significant fact concerns the quality of the projects, assessed by 2/3 international reviewers: the distribution of scores shows an average between 'very good' and 'excellent'. This indicates that the level of the Italian scientific community is high overall.

Winning integration

I believe that the strength of the model, in addition to the quality of its services and personnel, is integration. National platforms make it possible to tackle complex problems along the entire biomedical research chain under one roof: from the identification of genetic variants, to the study of molecular mechanisms, to the analysis in cellular systems and the development of disease models. In other contexts, including the US, these competencies are distributed among different institutions and require complex networks of collaboration, with inevitable coordination costs and loss of efficiency. Concentration in a single ecosystem is a major competitive advantage.

Added to this is a less visible but equally important aspect: the two-way nature of the system. The National Platforms are not only a service for the Italian scientific community, but also benefit from the exchange of ideas and projects from all over the country, including HT researchers. In this way, a virtuous circle is created, which contributes to raising the overall level of national research and enhancing talent even in less central contexts.

I think the conditions are in place for Human Technopole, thanks to the National Platforms, to position itself as the central hub of Italian research, also with the collaboration of the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. For me, this experiment shows that investing in shared infrastructures, rigorous, transparent and impartial evaluation is not only possible: it is the right way to make our system more competitive, efficient and attractive internationally.

* President of the Independent Permanent Evaluation Commission for Access to the National Platforms (Civp) of Human Technopole, Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University Medical Center

Brand connect

I prossimi eventi

Tutti gli eventi

Notizie e approfondimenti sugli avvenimenti politici, economici e finanziari.