Controversy grows over Italy’s MIT

Science : Six years ago, the Italian government launched the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) with the grand goal of using scientific and engineering research to boost the country’s struggling economy. It was established as a unique public-private research foundation, with government funding of about €50 million to €100 million a year for a decade—a huge investment for a country where researchers complain of chronic underfunding.The institute now employs 380 scientists, based in a newly renovated massive lab building outside Genoa, and has external research centers at nine Italian universities, and in IIT-affiliated labs abroad.IIT was expected to partner with Italian industry, but not a single Italian company has funded research with it so far, Cingolani confirmed to Science . And although Cingolani points to a string of positive evaluations by IIT’s own scientific committee, the Italian government has declined to release a recent independent assessment of IIT that, according to its authors, is highly critical.