ROMA (ITALPRESS) – The Minister of the University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, and the Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space, Dorothee Bär, have signed a Joint Declaration on Universities and Research that strengthens the strategic partnership between Italy and Germany in the fields of university, scientific research and innovation. The Declaration was signed at the Intergovernmental Summit in Italy-Germany, held today at Villa Doria Pamphilij, co-chaired by the President of the Council Giorgia Meloni and the Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“ Scientific collaboration is one of the pillars of the Action Plan for bilateral strategic cooperation between Italy and Germany. In an increasingly complex international context – Bernini emphasises – science and research are affirmed as strategic levers, such as security and industrial competitiveness, in strengthening stability, innovation and shared growth among friends countries. Scientific and university collaboration builds bridges that resist over time: connects communities, creates conditions for common development and consolidates a shared presence of Italy and Germany in European and global contexts.”.
“Germany and Italy are linked by a wide and diversified network of university and research cooperation, which has grown over a long period. With today’s Joint Declaration between our Ministries we further strengthen this close collaboration. In doing so we create conditions for our further scientific and economic development as well as for our ability to innovation and competitiveness,” said Dorothee Bär.
The Joint Declaration highlights the centrality of major research infrastructures as an important area of bilateral cooperation, aims to strengthen academic collaboration and promote student and research mobility, in line with the objectives of the European Research and Higher Education Area. The document also provides for the draft Action Plan to further strengthen cooperation in research and technology, to be signed by September 2026.
Science and research have represented one of the central themes of the Intergovernmental Summit Italy-Germany, held today in Rome and co-chaired by the President of the Council Giorgia Meloni and the Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz. In addition to common security and defence and industrial competitiveness, science and research have been recognised as one of the structural axes of bilateral relations between Italy and Germany, to be included in the three key themes chosen for the Intergovernmental Summit. In this context, scientific and university cooperation is confirmed as a strategic bridge between the two countries, able to strengthen bilateral dialogue and support a common and coherent presence in the main European and global contexts, bringing shared values.
At the summit, President Meloni and Chancellor Merz signed the “Protocol on an Action Plan for Bilateral and European Strategic Cooperation” which further strengthens this approach, making the areas of collaboration more concrete and operational. With regard to the aspects of interest of the Ministry of the University and Research, the Protocol will, in particular, allow joint support to the major research infrastructures, the strengthening of the industrial partnership in the semiconductor and green hydrogen sectors and the strengthening of the role of the Italian-German Centre for the scientific and cultural dialogue “Villa Vigoni”, which in 2025 celebrates the forty years of activity and is also called to promote scientific initiatives of European breath.
In this context, the Joint Declaration signed by the Minister of University and Research Anna Maria Bernini and the Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space Dorothee Bär is part of the Joint Declaration. The document reaffirms the centrality of cooperation in university and research, as well as the joint commitment to promoting academic mobility and scientific collaboration, also providing for the definition of a common action plan by September 2026. The solidity of academic relations between Italy and Germany emerges clearly also from the data on mobility. Currently, there are 1.647 German students enrolled in Italian universities, to which 142 PhD students and 167 enrolled in the AFAM institutions are added. In the period 2020-2025, Erasmus mobility involved 23,824 students from Italy to Germany and 26,102 students from Germany to Italy, confirming an intense and continuous exchange. Cooperation is also based on a consolidated network of 843 academic agreements, 320 of which are still in force, with 360 agreements between academies of high education in the fields of art, music and dance.
The dialogue between research and industry also develops through active partnerships at the Bologna Tecnopolo, a European point of reference for advanced research and technological innovation, with the involvement of German companies in high-scientific projects. The common vision between Italy and Germany in the scientific field was further strengthened on 12 January, with the signing in Rome, at the Ministry of University and Research, of a joint declaration of intent between the Sardinia Region, Italy and the Free State of Saxony on strengthening cooperation in view of the respective candidatures to host the Einstein Telescope, the new generation gravitational wave detector intended to allow the international scientific community to study its origins.
– Photo of the Ministry of University and Research –
(ITALPRESS).
