I don’t think the source of funding for the study is listed-at least not in the article. Many research grants are financed by wealthy philanthropists and such-it even happens right here in the US. Tax money grants are usually used here to finance the nonsensical s***-like climate change, the sex lives of amoebas-and even animal cruelty like Fauci torturing beagles...
It’s a public research university as per Wikipedia, so Italy’s tax-payers and whatever donors it might have are footing the bill for part of what it produces.