Research Work in the Industry 4.0 Era: The Italian Case

ABSTRACT PURPOSE: this paper wants to contribute to providing a legal framework for research work carried out in companies and the private sector. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: after providing the theoretical framework, an analysis is supplied of all measures – including financial ones – related to the promotion of research work in companies and the private sector, more generally. FINDINGS: the idea of research in Italy is still closely associated with academia and this might hamper the establishment of company-based researchers and cooperation between the public and the private sector, especially without the setting up of a legal and institutional framework that puts private research work on an equal footing with public research. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: this research calls for the need to bring together academia and industry by putting in place a set of rules regulating research work at companies and in the private sector, more broadly, according to the European Charter for Researchers. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: for the first time in Italy, non-academic research work is analyzed in a systematic framework covering legislation and rules laid down by collective bargaining. PAPER TYPE: theoretical and institutional research aimed to change and modernize the legal framework in Italy.