News & Views item - April  2005

 

 

The Turmoil in Italian Academe and Research Institutes Continues as the Berlusconi Government Teeters. (April 18, 2005)

    Susan Biggin reported in Science recently that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government "continues to try to align publicly funded research more closely with the needs of industry" and apparently in ways not dissimilar from the approaches adopted by Australia's conservative coalition government under John Howard while, simultaneously working on legislation to reform its Byzantine hierarchical  system of academic staffing. Currently the legislation is languishing in the Italian parliament and as a stopgap governmental degree implementing some of the some of the reforms became law at the beginning of the month. The majority of Italy's university rectors (vice-chancellors) dismissed most of the measures as "totally unacceptable" and for the moment nothing has been resolved. Among other changes the decree "approves salary hikes for 22,000 entry-level researchers after just 1 year instead of the current three, [but] it provides no extra cash to pay for the raises."

    In addition it "diverts 7% of university funding from public to private universities." Biggen reports "the College of Rectors sent a strongly worded letter to Italy's Minister for Education, Universities, and Research, Letizia Moratti calling for a 10% increase in funding, as well as scrapping the researcher post in favor of a new position which leads more naturally to grades of associate and full professor. Moratti agreed to reconsider and sent the bill back to Parliament for reworking."

 

 

Meanwhile the minister continues to push the government's pro-business agenda reinforcing the effort begun in June 2001when Forza Italia came to power. Prime Minister Berlusconi argues that attracting more industry investment will require reform of the universities and government research institutes. Moratti's "aim is to raise private investment and boost high-tech industry. This ties in with the European Union's goal, set out at a meeting in Lisbon in 2000, for member states to spend 3% of their gross domestic product on research by 2010. Italy currently spends about 1.2%--more than half of which now comes from public coffers."

 

 

 

You may also find the following figures from the Group of Eight instructive.

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION:
AN UPDATE
18 September 2002
BENCHMARKING AUSTRALIA’S INVESTMENT IN R&D

 

 

 

 

 


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