Auditors call for ‘rationalised’ funding procedures

Delays and budget variations cause planning problems at Italian institutes, court finds

The Corte dei Conti, the Italian court of auditors, has urged the country’s research and university ministry to “accelerate and rationalise” funding procedures for public and private research institutions.

Improving the reliability of research funding, including through the Fondo Ordinario per gli Enti (FOE), which funds research institutions, is especially important—not least in order to help such institutes bounce back from the Covid-19 pandemic, the auditors said.