By Miriam Franchina
For the General Assembly of Italian Research held in Berlin on April 23, there were no guillotines on the horizon. There were, however, many different “estates,” though technically without hereditary privileges like in 1789: 10,000 Italian students enrolled in full degree programs in Germany, plus another 4,500 participating in Erasmus exchanges; 355 professors, second only to Austrians among foreign faculty members in the Federal Republic; and around 4,500 researchers, exceeded only by India and China in numbers. These are individuals who completed a PhD and work at universities, which account for roughly two thirds of the total, or in other academic institutions that form the backbone of the system.
Their diversity is reflected in the many labels attached to them: postdocs, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter:innen, scientific staff, or the infamous Nachwuchswissenschaftler:innen (“early career researchers”), even when they are well into their forties. In the absence of a neutral English equivalent like the German Forschende, we will simply call them “researchers.” They work in laboratories, archives, lecture halls, and hospitals, conducting fieldwork in archaeological digs or through participant observation. Always ready for the next project, they pursue funding opportunities that take them across national and continental borders, learning a new language at every stop, or at least trying to, while blending it with Italian.
The General Assembly and the Italian Academic Presence in Germany
After passing through the metal detectors at the Italian Embassy, which hosted the event, some of the roughly seventy attendees “already felt at home” and tried to guess who came from the same corner of Italy. It did not matter how long they had been abroad or whether they worked in computational chemistry or Tupí linguistics: sooner or later, their accent revealed their biographical geography. Others only return home during vacations and to restock on packages of Italian food, because while the term “brain drain” may be debated, culinary exile is a universally shared topic of conversation.
If it is difficult to speak of a single Germany, with sixteen federal states and nearly half of international scientific collaborations concentrated in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, and North Rhine-Westphalia, many Italians grow up already knowing they will eventually have to leave their region. “It makes little difference whether the destination is Rome, Milan, or Hanover.”
Flows and Asymmetries in Research Mobility
Unlike the French Estates-General of 1789, the Italian research assembly was organized from the bottom up by SIGN and FAI, two associations seeking to connect and mobilize the “distributed system” of Italian research in Germany. The goal of the day was to map, understand, and begin addressing what participants described as a “major asymmetry.” While there is a substantial flow of researchers and students from Italy to Germany, there is no comparable movement in the opposite direction. Only around 1,500 German students and a few hundred German researchers currently work or study in Italian universities.
Italian Ambassador Fabrizio Bucci voiced a common perception: Italy is recognized in Germany as an economic and industrial partner, but Italian research does not enjoy the same reputation, despite notable achievements. One example concerns the prestigious and highly competitive European Research Council grants. Scientists of Italian origin rank second in number of ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants awarded, even though many receive them while working abroad.
Networks, Cooperation, and Possible Tools
The panels at the General Assembly highlighted many examples of Italian researchers whose career paths were often complex and unpredictable, and who eventually made research their new homeland. Many did not arrive in Germany according to a carefully planned strategy. They frequently act as bridges, providing information, contacts, support, and doctoral supervision to those seeking to move between the two countries.
Other speakers illustrated how Italian institutions promote academic collaboration between Italy and Germany through both long term initiatives and more informal exchanges. Participants emphasized the need for more structured information systems to open up the Italian academic system and facilitate the already ongoing movement from Italy to Germany, with SIGN and FAI seen as networks that should be strengthened further.
Among the proposed measures were bilateral doctoral programs, dual affiliation professorships, compatible and transparent recruitment procedures and study paths on both sides of the Alps, and joint startup programs.
Research Systems in Germany and Italy
The core audience on April 23 consisted largely of researchers in the natural sciences, reflecting the strong preference among international students in Germany for engineering and STEM disciplines, fields that are more easily integrated into an economy that, despite signs of strain, remains attractive.
Humanities scholars, by contrast, face more limited career prospects even in Germany and would benefit from additional support in identifying opportunities beyond traditional academic paths.
Both in the formal discussions and in conversations during coffee breaks, participants repeatedly pointed to the stark difference in research investment between Italy and Germany, which allocate approximately 1.5% and 3.1% of GDP to research respectively. Researchers pursuing professorships or at least medium term positions quickly learn how to navigate the comparatively generous German funding landscape.
Funding Structures and Research Communication
Particularly prominent are Germany’s large non-university research organizations: the Helmholtz Association, with roughly six billion euros in annual funding, alongside the Max Planck Society, Leibniz Association, and Fraunhofer Society, each operating with annual budgets between two and three billion euros.
Unlike universities, these institutions focus primarily on research rather than teaching and are sustained largely through federal funding. They invest, for example, in clinician scientists who combine research with clinical practice, and instrument scientists who support the design and execution of experiments involving specialized equipment.
Navigating the dense ecosystem of private and political foundations is often less straightforward, which is why a strong network of researchers in Germany can serve as a valuable compass. The discussions also included criticism of the German system itself, which combines a high percentage of temporary academic staff, estimated at 82% in 2022, with substantial spending on permanent administrative personnel whose efficiency is not always evident.
From Specialized Research to Public Communication
Researchers often dedicate their lives to highly specialized “basic questions” that may seem impenetrable from the outside. How and why can sugar molecules fold like hairpins? What prayers were recited by enslaved Africans fleeing Caribbean plantations? Those pursuing such questions are often perfectly content simply to find answers, without worrying too much about practical applications.
Yet for funding agencies and taxpayers who make research possible, it is essential that this curiosity be communicated effectively and translated through science communication or WissKomm into narratives accessible beyond specialized publications and closed conferences.
Understanding sugar structures in the laboratory can become the first step toward designing functional materials inspired by nature’s architectures for medical and technological applications. Likewise, ancient amulets recovered from archives may reveal mechanisms of resilience that recur across time and space, helping us understand cultural dynamics that DNA alone cannot explain.
The Importance of Networks and Communication Between Countries
Building networks ultimately means learning how to communicate in multiple directions: with colleagues, students, and institutions to share information about career paths, regulations, and resources; and with the broader public to explain how science searches for answers while generating new questions and inevitable revisions.
Communication must also flow in both geographic directions: toward Italy, which many researchers left with or without a return ticket, and toward Germany, whether strategically chosen or reached through unforeseen opportunities.
This, perhaps, is the deeper meaning of the General Assembly, which served as a launchpad for future and more focused meetings aimed at addressing both the reputation gap of Italian academia in Germany and the imbalance in research investment.
SIGN and FAI encourage readers to explore their websites, join their networks, and contribute proposals and criticism. Returning to the analogy with the Estates-General of 1789, one does not necessarily need to storm a Bastille to launch a constitutional process. After all, the delegates of that time famously found their assembly hall closed and had to improvise in what today we would call a tennis court.
On April 23, by contrast, the Embassy opened its doors, linking the Berlin initiative to the IX Italian Research Day in the World promoted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Through mailing lists, word of mouth, and social media, the goal is to unite scattered efforts and transform a broad but fragmented presence into a recognizable interlocutor, including for decision makers operating between Rome and Berlin.Perhaps that is the central point: transforming what some describe as a diaspora into a network.
