Italy is registering remarkable growth rates for most segments of the ICT market: in 2022 the Italian digital market was worth €77,1 billion (+2.4% vs. 2021), and with the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, it is expected to reach €91,7 billion in 2025.
In particular, in 2022 a remarkable growth was recorded in three segments:
+6.2% in ICT software and solutions
+8.5% in ICT services
+6.3% in Digital contents & Ads
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GROWING ATTENTION TO DIGITAL ENABLERS AND TRANSFORMERS
Impressive forecasts for strategic enabling domains, that in the timeframe 2022-2026 are expected to grow as follows:
+20,2% Cloud (€5.259,1 mln in 2022)
+25,4% Blockchain (€42,5 mln in 2022)
+14,2% Cybersecurity (€1.590 mln in 2022)
+111.7% Big Data (€1.516,5 mln in 2022)
+28.9% AI (€435 mln in 2022)
A LEADER IN EUROPE FOR CLOUD USAGE
Italy ranks 1st among the most industrialized European countries for cloud usage, with 60% of companies adopting cloud services, and 1st in Europe for number of enterprises requesting cloud services (3,7 million).
The large-scale adoption of cloud services reveals an increasing commitment to the digitization of the Italian industry (mainly composed of SMEs), that will increase business opportunities for national companies, developers and providers.
TALENT POOL
Italy as an even-wider talent source: 109,292 graduates in key subjects for the ICT industry over the last academic years (2018-2021), of which:
43,753 graduates in Media Techniques and Technologies & Communication Studies
24,884 graduates in Computer and Data Sciences
23,980 graduates in Industrial, Electronics, Information and Telco Engineering
16,675 graduates in Math & Stats
Sources: Invitalia Report 2023 on data from Anitec-Assinform, Il Mercato Digitale in Italia, 2023; Anitec-Assinform, Il Mercato Digitale in Italia (2021-2022), 2022; Eurostat; Ministry of Economic Development; Polytechnic of Milan – Cloud Transformation Observatory (2022); Ministry of University and Research; QS World University Rankings; REPRINT Database – Polytechnic of Milan & Italian Trade Agency (2019).
INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
TOP LEVEL UNIVERSITIES
Italy hosts 56 universities with ICT-related degree programs, 8 of which are included in the European top 250 of the 2022 QS World University ranking for the highly competitive «Engineering & Technology» domain:
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Additionally, Italy is home to several high-level ICT research and innovation centers, each having a specialization in a specific ICT domain. The main centers are the following:
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National Research Council (CNR);
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Competence Centers;
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Innovation Hubs (Science Parks and tech districts; Incubators and Accelerators);
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CINECA computer center branches (Naples, Chieti, Rome, Bologna, Milan)
CNR
The National Research Council (CNR) - The National Research Council (Cnr) is the largest public research institution in Italy, the only one under the Research Ministry performing multidisciplinary activities. The CNR Department of Engineering, ICT and Technology for Energy and Transport (DIITET) performs scientific activities in priority areas for country innovation with applications in many sectors: from energy to transport, from industrial engineering and ICT to constructions, from biomedical sector to areas such as aero-space, cultural heritage, security, the environment, agriculture and shipbuilding.
COMPETENCE CENTERS
Competence Centers represent specialized hubs, which support companies in the adoption of advanced technologies. Indeed, Competence Centers provide companies with many services, e.g., training, testing, technology scouting, and project funding.
INNOVATION HUBS
Innovation hubs provide companies and research institutes with many tools and services: spaces, labs, consulting and networking services, and many more.
CINECA
Cineca is the largest Italian computing center, one of the most important worldwide. It operates in the technological transfer field through high performance scientific computing, the management and development of networks and web-based services, and the development of complex information systems to process large amounts of data.
Cineca, indeed, provides an extremely high-performance computing system capable of addressing the major scientific and industrial challenges of our time. Cineca helps companies to accelerate the “time-to-solution” through services ranging from on-demand access to the computing infrastructure, performance evaluation and optimization, to the development of PoC projects.
SUCCESS STORIES
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