| ABS | Anti-lock braking system |
| AE | Academic entrepreneurship |
| AFAM | Alta Formazione Artistica Musicale e Coreutica, Institutes for Art, Music and Dance |
| AgID | Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale, Agency for Digital Italy |
| AI | Artificial Intelligence |
| AISA | Italian Association for the Promotion of Open Science |
| AMT | Automated mechanical transmission |
| ANVUR | National Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research |
| API | Application programming interface |
| ATT | Open Science and Research Initiative |
| AVA | Autovalutazione – Valutazione periodica – Accreditamento, National System of Quality Assurance of the Universities |
| AvH | Alexander von Humboldt German Academic Exchange Service |
| B2B | Business-to-business |
| BERD | Business expenditure on R&D |
| BMBF | German Federal Ministry of Education and Research |
| BMVIT | Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology |
| CAP | Centro per l’Apprendimento Permanente, Centre for Lifelong Learning |
| CEFRL | Common European Framework of Reference for Languages |
| CEO | Chief executive officer |
| CFU | Credito Formativo Universitario, European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System |
| CIFRE | Conventions industrielles de formation par la recherche |
| CIMEA | Italian NARIC Centre |
| CIMO | Finnish Centre for International Mobility |
| CIPE | Inter-ministerial Committee for Economic Planning |
| CNR | National Research Council |
| CNSU | National Council of University Students |
| COMET | Competency Centres for Excellent Technologies |
| CPD | Continuing professional development |
| CREA | Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Activities |
| CRUI | Conference of Italian University Rectors |
| CSTD | Standard cost per student |
| CTN | National technological cluster |
| CUN | National University Council |
| DAAD | German Academic Exchange Service |
| DB | Data base |
| DFG | German Council of Science and Humanities |
| DIH | Digital Innovation Hub |
| EAIE | European Association for International Education |
| ECA | European Consortium for Accreditation |
| ECTS | European Credit Transfer Scale |
| EFSA | European Food Safety Authority |
| EI | Engagement and impact assessment |
| EOS | Emerging organisation |
| ERA | European research area |
| ERC | European Research Council |
| ERDF | European Fund for Regional Development |
| ESFRI | European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures |
| ESIF | European Structural and Investment Funds |
| EU | European Union |
| FFG | Austrian Research Promotion Agency |
| FFO | Fund for Structural Resources to State Universities |
| FIRST | Fund for Investments in Scientific and Technological Research |
| FIS | State Supplementary Fund |
| FOE | Fund for the Ordinary Financing of Research Entities and Institutions |
| FWF | Austrian Fund for Scientific Research |
| GDP | Gross domestic product |
| HE | Higher education |
| HE-BCI | Higher Education Business and Community Interaction |
| HEFCE | Higher Education Funding Council for England |
| HEI | Higher education institution |
| HEIF | Higher Education Innovation Fund |
| HERD | Higher education expenditure on intramural R&D |
| HRK | German Rectors Conference |
| IAU | International Association of Universities |
| ICT | Information and communication technology |
| IDOA | Immediate-deposit and optional-access |
| ILO | Industrial liaison office |
| IoT | Internet of Things |
| IP | Intellectual property |
| IPR | Intellectual property rights |
| IRIS | Institutional Research Information System |
| ISCED | International Standard Classification of Education |
| ISPD | Standardised Indicator of Departmental Performance |
| ISPIM | International Society for Professional Innovation Management |
| IT | Information technology |
| ITS | Istituti Tecnici Superiori, Technical Institutes for Post-secondary Education |
| IUSS | Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia, University Institute of Advanced Studies, Pavia |
| KEF | Knowledge exchange framework |
| KET | Key enabling technology |
| M2M | Machine-to-machine |
| MAE | Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of Italy |
| MiSE | Ministry for Economic Development |
| MIUR | Ministry of Education, University and Research |
| MOOC | Massive open online course |
| MOU | Memorandum of understanding |
| NEET | Not in education or training |
| NGO | Non-governmental organisation |
| NVAO | Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation |
| OECD | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |
| PA | Public Administration |
| PBL | Problem-based learning |
| PDO | Protected designation of origin |
| PGI | Protected geographical indication |
| PLN | Policy learning network |
| PLS | Piano Lauree Scientifiche, Plan for Scientific Degrees |
| PMR | Product market regulation |
| PNI | Premio Nazionale Innovazione |
| PNIR | National Plan for Research Infrastructures |
| PNR | National Research Plan |
| PoliMi | Politecnico di Milano |
| POT | Piano Orientamento e Tutoraggio, Plan for Tutoring and Career Guidance |
| PRIN | Research Projects of National Interest Scheme |
| QA | Quality assessment |
| R&D | Research and development |
| RCN | Research Council Norway |
| RUS | University Network for Sustainable Development |
| SCL | Santa Chiara Lab |
| SDG | United Nations Sustainable Development Goals |
| SIF | Italian Society of Pharmacology |
| SME | Small- and medium-sized enterprise |
| SNF | Swiss National Science Foundation |
| STEM | Science, technology, engineering and mathematics |
| TACRI | Tavolo di Coordinamento Della Ricerca Indistriale di Ateneo |
| TECO | Test sulle Competenze, Competence test |
| TECON | Test sulle Competenze, Competence test |
| TKI | Top consortia for knowledge and innovation |
| TM | Third mission |
| TRL | Technology readiness levels |
| TSG | Traditional specialities guaranteed |
| TTO | Technology transfer office |
| TUAS | Tampere University of Applied Sciences |
| TUT | Technical University Tampere |
| UAS | University of Applied Sciences |
| UniBa | University of Bari |
| UniBo | University of Bologna |
| UniCa | University of Cagliari |
| UTA | University of Tampere |
| VET | Vocational education and training |
| VQR | National Research Quality Assessment |
| VQR | Valutazione della Qualità della Ricerca, Periodical Evaluation of Research Quality |
| WoX | Web of Topics |