L’organizzazione dei servizi di supporto alla ricerca nelle università italiane: competenze, relazioni e principali attività

[Autom. eng. transl.] In recent years, the Italian university context has undergone a series of changes and more and more pressures have been exerted on academic research. The latter plays a role of primary importance today, being able to attract funds and financing and to determine successful performance in international rankings. In order to carry out their profession effectively, researchers need capable and efficient research support systems. Since the main organizational characteristics of the research support services of Italian universities are practically unknown today, the need to understand their peculiarities and at the same time generalities emerges. To meet this need, a survey was conducted that involved fifty-eight Italian universities, both state and non-state. The results of the analyzes made it possible to identify three main groups of scientific research support units: technicians, communicators and directors.