“In Italy, the ratio between research/development expenses and GDP is 1.1 percent, whereas the commitments set out with the EU place it at 3 percent within 2010. This goal is far away from reality and I do not see any clear political strategy to this purpose, despite the fact that our country ranks last in Europe. At our universities we have the chance to work with world’s leading personalities in the energy field, who are however at a disadvantage compared with foreign university professors. The latter, indeed, are not disconnected from the real world and so become interesting partners for international companies and organizations. Nonetheless, I think that our engineers still have a better education on the average: although it is more horizontal and less specializing, and requires longer time and more investment in training to provide immediate job efficiency, it is rewarding in the long run and allows to create highly skilled, harmonious teams. This means good universities and clever graduates are cut off from experimental research which is preparatory to development. Based on these premises, what can companies do, particularly if they are small to medium enterprises like ours? Either you renounce and accept the consequences of research strategies based on the interests of other countries or you decide to invest and risk, modelling research on your actual growth and innovation needs. We have chosen the second option, actively participating in the establishment of a new company that has obtained an international patent for a low-stage hydraulic turbine; this research was promoted by a private initiative and carried out by international experts. Here is another example: for a special hydroelectric plant in the Lodi (Italy) area, we decided to create a scale model to carry out all necessary experiments, under the supervision of professors from the University of Padua, before building the plant – which is now operating – at our own risk. This can make you understand why Italy’s technical scientific research structures have sometimes been unsuccessful: the lack of research and innovation culture adds to the lack of an entrepreneurial drive”.

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