On September 19th, 2025, the NanoInnovation Conference 2025 held yearly in Rome, Italy hosted a session titled “Research and Innovation in Materials: From Italy’s NRRP to the EU Framework Programme”, bringing together experts, institutions, and policymakers to discuss how Italy and Europe can strengthen their collaboration in the AdMa research landscape.
The event, co-organized by APRE (InnoMatSyn project partner) and AIRI (the Italian Association for Industrial Research), highlighted how advanced materials are becoming a cornerstone of Europe’s competitiveness, sustainability, and technological sovereignty. As long recognized by the European Commission, materials R&I is strategically central to address key industrial challenges across sectors. While the Italian NRRP and Horizon Europe have further accelerated progress in this field, supporting projects and infrastructures that treat materials as an enabling technology – even when not explicitly designated as a priority area – the funding landscape both at the Italian and at the EU level remains fragmented. The session therefore emphasized the importance of building stronger bridges between the national, regional and European levels in support of a long-term vision that entails a unified and collaborative strategic direction.
A distinguished panel participated in the discussion: Maria Cristina Russo (Director, Prosperity Direction, DG RTD, European Commission), Stefano Fabris (Director, Department of Physics and Technologies of Matter, Italian National Research Council), Edoardo Bemporad (Member of the EC Technology Council for Advanced Materials), Gianluca Fiori (IAM-I Vice-Chair), and Federica Bondioli (President of the National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology), among others, engaged in a high-level conversation underscoring the importance of sustained coordination and dialogue among AdMa stakeholders and funding bodies.
Overall, the event made clear that the Italian and European materials research community is vibrant and growing, but greater strategic alignment is needed, alongside a deeper connection between public and private initiatives and an enhanced coherence with EU priorities.
