In addition to the individual evaluations of the research products (books, articles, patents), Politecnico di Milano in 2007 began an international assessment activity of the research groups operating in the Departments.

The international assessment (peer review) of the university’s departments began in March 2007 and was organized in several phases as briefly described below:

• Each department described its own research activities organizing them into lines of research and the related groups according to a model which was agreed upon beforehand. For each of the groups the participation of fully tenured professors/research fellows was selected as well as their collaborators and the experimental equipment, scientific publications, main research contracts, recognitions etc. were described
• Each department informed the Rector of 5 foreign universities and/or scientific institutions, preferably European, deemed to be carrying out analogous research activities
• The Rector, giving the priority to the institutions that precede Politecnico in international ranking, asked the Rector/President for the Review Panel Coordinator
• The Rector asked the 17 Coordinators thus indicated to choose at their discretion the members of the Review Panel whose numbers may vary from 3 to 9, according to the size of the department
• There were consequently 82 Reviewers coming from 53 overseas institutions involved
• The members of each Review Panel received the document drawn up by the department, the document review form to be filled out and divided into two sections: the first concerned the assessment given by the department; the second the assessment of the research groups
• The Panel was requested to organize the judgements of the research groups with reference to the quality of the research conducted internationally in analogous areas according to the following scale of values:
  • 4 - excellence at international level
  • 3 - good at international level
  • 2 - average at international level
  • 1 - below the average at international level
• The 17 Panels, also following a visit of 2 - 3 days in the related departments, sent an assessment report to the Rector, who had arranged to forward it to the Head of the department as well as the University Assessment Group.

Note: at the time of the peer review there were 17 Departments. This number has varied following the creation of the Department of Energy, which has absorbed 2 of the pre-existing Departments.

The assessment process having concluded, in May of 2008 the Academic Senate decided the following measures in order to start the improvement process:

• The Department review reports as well as those of the Review Panels are available on the university Intranet
• The Top Research Groups (excellent and good at international level) with some lines of description of their activities will be cited on the university Web
• Each department must draw up a plan, which in additional to responding to the specific observations of the Review Panel must contain:
  • The actions aimed at redefining/aggregating/cancelling/strengthening the research groups
  • The choices needed to better guide/modify the research activities in particular those of the young people who are today part of groups which have been assessed as being average or below average
  • The publication sites to privilege in order to allow the largest international diffusion of the department’s scientific products
  • The minimum requirements for the hiring of Full Professors, Associate Professors and Research Fellows, explaining to which section of the university they are to be assigned and types of publications considered relevant for the purposes of their taking up service in the Politecnico
• The improvement plan of the department will be sent to the Review Panel coordinator, to whom an assessment will be requested
• In the criteria of internal divisions to assign to the Departments 50% of the share of the research in function of the number of professors belonging to research groups which were deemed excellent at international level (>= 3,50) for the purpose of enhancing the value and stimulating the capacity of being internationally considered at a good level by their peers.

Of the 1270 professors (Full, Associate, Research Fellows) present in the University, 1194 (equal to 95%) belong to groups which underwent peer review.

The 17 Departments have organized their research activities into 108 lines and 264 research groups.

They have been evaluated as follows:

• 4 - Excellent at international level: 91 research groups
• 3 - Good at international level: 63 research groups
• 2 - Average at international level: 92 research groups
• 1 - Below average at international level: 6 research groups

Of the 1194 professors, 497 belong to groups evaluated as excellent at international level, 284 to groups evaluated as good at international level; 372 to groups evaluated as average at international level; 41 to groups evaluated as below average at international level.

The research produced by the university professors results overall as being evaluated as good at international level.

The expenses deriving from the review process amounted to 380,000 Euros. The enormous effort of all of the people involved in the departments and personnel in the research areas who managed the operation should be also added.