The Giovanni Agnelli Foundation

The Giovanni Agnelli Foundation is an independent non-profit research institute active in the fielde of human and social sciences. It is an endowed, operating foundation established in 1966 by FIAT and IFI to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the founder of FIAT, Senator Giovanni Agnelli. The Foundation has a seat in the governing board of the European Foundation Centre.

The mission of the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation is to further and spread knowledge of the conditions on which Italy’s progress in economic, scientific, social and cultural fields depends.

At present the Foundation’s main research area is education (school, university, adult training systems and lifelong learning) as an asset for economic and social growth.

This choice was made because of the widely shared belief that a country’s economic welfare and social cohesiveness is based on the quality of its human capital above all.

A better educated population grants a higher level of productivity, hence a better place in the scale of global competition; furthermore education is one of the most powerful levers for an individual’s fulfilment as well as a very important channel of social mobility as it opens the way to socially relevant positions to the talented and motivated ones, irrespective of their background.

More and more often International reports on schooling give worrying signals on the Italian system. Even though they do not classify it as a complete failure, which would be a simplification of the issue, they point out its seriously weaknesses.

The Giovanni Agnelli Foundation publishes books and has chosen to make the books they published in the last few years available to download for free. The works include the outcome of research studies carried out within the projects which have been the core activity of the Fondazione throughout the years.

Books will be published online in PDF format and inclusive of a short presentation, however, they will be available in Italian only.