With the provincial law nr. 14, from 2 August 2005 Trento Autonomous Province has reorganized the whole Trentino research system, as well as the role of the Province supporting and managing it.
The main instrument to program interventions aimed at the development of the system is the Pluriennal Research Programme [PPR]. It determines the goals to pursue and the general guidelines for intervention, as well as the research areas of priority interest for the provincial territory, the general criteria for the evaluation of the activities, of the research projects and for the subsequent examination of the results.
The Pluriennal Research Programme has been approved by the Provincial Government with decision nr.2365, of 10 November 2006. It remains in force until the new Pluriennal Research Programme for the XIV legislature is approved.
In accordance with the law (Art. 17), a unique research fund was set up. This has to be used for the financial support of programmes, projects and research agreement, is broken down in sections aimed at the financing of the University of Trento, of the Foundations Bruno Kessler and Edmund Mach, the enterprises and of the provincial organisations and other institutions carrying out research in the province of Trento.
Instruments prescribed in the law (Art. 16):
To define the strategic goals, the guidelines for granting contributions and for the evaluation of the scientific research, the Province possesses two institutions for consultancy and evaluation:
- The Technical-Scientific Committee for Research and Innovation (Art. 23), which gives its view on presented projects in scientific and industrial research field and which makes proposals to the Pluriennal Research Programme.
- The Research Evaluation Committee (Art. 24), which evaluates the efficiency of the provincial interventions, in connection with the goals fixed in the Pluriennal Research Programme and with the outcome of the financed projects. In addition to this, the committee provides the Provincial Government and the Provincial Council with a report over the evaluation activities, upon request of the Provincial Government itself and following approval of the Pluriennal Research Programme.
The law has transformed the Institute for Culture in Trentino - Istituto trentino di cultura (Itc) and the Agricultural Institute - Istituto agrario di San Michele all'Adige (Iasma) into one foundation named Alpine - Ecological Centre - Centro di ecologia alpina (Cea) (Art.5 & 9).
The law has also repealed the Articles 9 and 10 of the LP 3 of 2000, which allowed the promotion of scientific and technological research and the management of the funds for research projects.
