martedì 7 ottobre 2008

Rescuing Italian Scientific Research

While the link between scientific research, innovation and competitiveness is universally acknowledged, the present Italian Government, as the previous ones, is confirming its intentions, notwithstanding the contrary verbal declarations, in penalizing Italian research. In addition to the further cuts to investements in this critical sector included in the State Budget Law, the block to the procedure for the stabilization of fixed term workers in Universities and Research Institutions has been added in a Law proposal presently under discussion in the Parliament. All this implies not only a severe reduction in financial resources for research Institutions, but also a dramatic reduction in human resources necessary to make these structures work and to carry on scientific projects and activities. At present the Italian scientific world is protesting against these conditions to which Government is replying proposing, to solve the situation, a block shift to July 2009!!!
It is true that in Italy the most serious problem is not linked to "how much" to invest, but rather "how" these scarce public resources are invested in research and development, considering that Italian Universities are affected by the same deseases and corruption methods affecting the entire "Italian way of Life". It is true that our research and innovation system often has shown very limited capabilities in rationally using such resources in order to generate benefits useful for the society as a whole (and not only for the Univeristy Mafia). It is true that financial resources are dispersed in thousands lanes in order to satisfy the respective "desiderata". It is true that Italy lacks a real research evaluation system capable to award the best scientists and hamper brilliant carreers for "friends" and "sons of..." with no merit. Maybe it could be necessary to have a political elite capable (and having the effective intentions) to really cope with these issues and, in the same time, some useful contributions could derive for example from the reductions of the Italian military missions abroad, converging the related resources to scientific research, or eliminating the 8/1000 income quota Italians are forced to pay to religious institutions (the greater part of which absorbed by the Vatican) to be eventually changed in a 8/1000 income quota to be directed to scientific research...
In the meantime, the fixed term workers of the National Research Council of Italy are fighting against the anti-stabilization norms. They have prepared a letter for the President of the Italian Republic, Mr. Giorgio Napolitano, to make him aware of the implications for the research institutions staff. You can sign this letter in the site:

3 commenti:

TarzanHello ha detto...

Ci voleva: il punto della situazione ben tradotto in inglese; aggiungerei 'Berlusconi' e 'Brunetta' come tags più specifici per far sì che l'articolo sia trovabile da tutti gli interessati nelle malefatte del governo corrente!

TarzanHello ha detto...

Ci voleva: il punto della situazione ben tradotto in inglese -aggiungerei i tag 'berlusconi' e Brunetta' per far sì che l'articolo sia trovabile da tutti gli interessati nelle malefatte del GovernoItaliano.

Carmelo Cannarella ha detto...

Penso che le malefatte dell'attuale governo (come di tutta la nostra classe politica a tutti livelli) siano tali e tante che non ci sia forse bisogno di aggiungere altro. Comunque apprezzo molto il tuo sostegno soprattutto in questi tempi scoraggianti in cui chiunque abbia un minimo di senso "critico" finisce con il sentirsi irrimediabilmente solo ed isolato visto l'appiattimento generale e l'anoressia mentale di gran parte dell'opinione pubblica nostrana.