Recent replies to "The (near) future of Italian Science with the new government "

Reply from Piero Visconti

Piero Visconti — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:49:14 -0000

Don’t be sorry Marco. I think you express a common sentiment. In the end, this is one of the main reasons why there is such a leakage of brains from the country.
I hope somebody from the community would give us some opposite view and cite some sign of revolution on this end…

Reply from Marco Boscolo

Marco Boscolo — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:29:35 -0000

Actually, we experienced part of this poltical atmosphere in the last months, while the italina government was discussing the nominee of maiani as director of the main italian research intitute, cnr… I don’t know which was the impression we gave as a country to the observers. But I’ve got the impression (ironic…) that episodes such as the one of La Sapienza picture Italy much more near the stereotypes of “pizza, mandolino e mafia” than a modern country, member of the G8…
Sorry: today I’m quite pessimist…

Reply from Piero Visconti

Piero Visconti — Sun, 11 May 2008 12:46:21 -0000

I don’t know wether public spending is going to increase or not, what I know is that the board of directors of the environmental protection agency (APAT), the national council of research (CNR), the national energy and environment agency (ENEA) etc. etc. are very likely to be changed again. This continuous change of directors and directions of this public research centers cause a major disruption in the activity of many researchers that have their funding reduced or interrupted, and so international projects and collaboration, resulting in a major waste of money and research time. I know several never finished research that had their life depending by the survival of the present government. Very ambitious and usefoul research and conservation projects abandoned with various excuses but with the only fault of having being sponsorized by the other sector of the parliament.
I think that research priorities can be somehow directed by the ministries of the research and industry but also they should be granted a life span long enough to produce results. As long as these positions are marketed and exchanged with political favors and the directors are appointed according to their color and faith rather than their CV I don’t think this is going to happen.