Funding sources for public health research in Italy.

In a European country such as Italy the funding landscape in public health research appears to be complex, due to the wide range of topics and intertwined roles of funding actors. Public funding are more frequent than private funding also independently of research topics, though most research activities did not require specific financial support, implying that public health research frequently has limited financial needs. This likely enables more flexibility and independence to investigators in public health, with major implications in terms of feasibility and absence of conflicts of interest.