Contacts
Bocconi ranks among the top Italian universities for research: first in “Economics and Statistics” and “Mathematics and Computer Science,” and second in “Political and Social Sciences” and “Business and Economics”

Bocconi research continues to rank among the strongest and most competitive in the Italian university landscape. This is the finding of the Final Report of the 2020–2024 Research Quality Assessment (VQR), issued by ANVUR, the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research System, based on nearly 200,000 scientific publications authored by over 75,000 researchers. 

Bocconi University is shown to be an institution capable not only of producing top-tier research, but also of attracting international talent and establishing a highly competitive academic model over time. 

The power of international recruitment 

Bocconi remains at the top with an overall quality index of 1.15, a figure indicating a performance 15% above the national average. Even more significant is the value of the IRAS1_2 indicator, at 8.191, which measures the amount of high-quality research produced relative to the university’s size: a result that places Bocconi well above expectations within the Italian university system. 

The University also achieves the highest score in Italy for researchers recruited or promoted between 2020 and 2024, confirming its strong ability to attract internationally competitive scholars and to progressively strengthen its scientific capital. 

“These results confirm Bocconi’s ability to foster an open, international, and highly meritocratic research environment, where scholars from diverse backgrounds can engage with one another on the major economic and social transformations of our time,” comments Rector Francesco Billari. “Today, scientific excellence increasingly stems from the convergence of different expertise, interdisciplinary approaches, and global collaborative networks.” 

The academic disciplines at the top of the rankings 

The ANVUR evaluation takes into account disciplinary areas that are consistent across the country, thereby allowing for a direct comparison among Italian universities. 

In this context, Bocconi ranks first overall in the fields of “Economics and Statistics” and “Mathematics and Computer Science,” and second in “Political and Social Sciences” and “Business and Management.” 

These results reflect the university’s ability to combine disciplinary expertise, methodological rigor, and growing integration across economics, social sciences, data science, and artificial intelligence. 

“University research cannot be limited to scientific output alone,” adds Billari. “Today, universities also have a responsibility to contribute to the quality of public discourse, provide tools for interpreting complexity, and train new generations of scholars and professionals capable of having a tangible impact on society.” 

A strong track record of securing competitive international funding 

The R5 indicator, which measures an institution’s average ability to attract competitive international research funding relative to the national average for the academic fields in which it operates, is particularly significant: Bocconi achieved a score of 2.52, the highest result in the entire Italian university system. Following are: IMT Lucca (2.03), IUSS PV (1.92), Humanitas (1.88), San Raffaele (1.3). 

A competitive and well-established research model 

Overall, the 2020–2024 VQR paints a picture of a specialized university that consistently ranks among the top institutions in the Italian university system in the fields of economics, management, and social sciences. Bocconi’s continued presence at the top of the rankings highlights not only the high quality of its scholarly output but also the university’s ability to consolidate, over time, an international, selective, and impact-oriented research model.

Research