First published in Research Europe (http://info.researchprofessional.com/research-europe/), 17 May 2018.
The great and the good of Italian science met in Rome last week, but politicians were nowhere to be seen.
Article published on the ASSET website
Gender is considered a main issue in Horizon 2020, the largest ever EU Research and Innovation programme, with €80 billion worth of funding available over seven years. The European Commission has identified seven priority areas of societal challenges, with the goal targeting investment in research in these fields. They are:
It’s a question that has concerned Western society since the women’s liberation movement: is it really possible to be successful both at work and at home? When applied to women in the field of science, the question takes on various dimensions. We talked with Ilaria Capua, the Director of the Division of Comparative Biomedical Sciences at the Istituto Zooprofilattico delle Venezie, and Member of the Italian Parliament, about this challenge, the importance teaching women leadership skills and what the world learned from the Ebola outbreak.
Someone could have hoped for a different end, but the signs were all clear: few days ago, Juncker made a final decision on cutting the role of the Chief Scientific Advisor at the European Commission. Apparently, this decision came after a struggle between the scientific community and some environmental NGPs, one above all, Greenpeace.
The debate on scientific advisory and future policies is becoming very harsh in the European Union. In the last weeks, an increasing numbers of contributions have created a huge debate about the necessity of a Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA) at the European top decision level, as the mandate of Anne Glover is close to its end.
The Jean-Claude Juncker's new Commission is taking shape. The first moves showed that the Barroso structure will be changed completely. This new course has invested the scientific policymaking, starting from the appointment of the new Commissioner on Science and Innovation. Rumors said that Juncker initially preferred a Portuguese woman, Maria Luis Albuquerque, Minister of Finance in Lisbon.
When is a scientist not really a scientist? This the provocation launched by Nature last week.
For many people, whoever has a PhD in Molecular Genetics or in Physics can rightfully exhibit this ‘title’. But for others, science is something that you ‘do’, not just something you learnt. According to the purists, then, those who leave the lab after a post-graduate education, in order to work somewhere else, have lost their way and have been seduced by the dark side.
If continuity means importance, research and energy have been confirmed as a priority for the European Union, at least in its Parliament. Despite the challenging election of the new Parliament, on the scientific point of view nothing seems to be changed.
Political relations between Europe and Turkey have never been easy and even in scientific research, often over the parts, the inclusion of the Turkish Government into international dynamics represented a special case. One example of this particularity is the fact that the final agreement that allows Turkey to be among the beneficiaries of Horizon 2020 was only signed in June. “Turkey is a much valued partner.
The biggest surprise in the European Parliament elections has been the victory of the so called Eurosceptic and Europhobic parties, such as the Front National (FN, from France), the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip, from Uk) or the Dutch Party for Freedom. Despite their proclaims, these parties come from different backgrounds and have a different approach to science and research – as clearly shown by an analysis made by Science|Business.
In May 22-25, European citizens will decide who will lead the Union for the next five years. Despite being the eighth general elections for the European Parliament since 1979, this time is particularly important. For the first time candidates for the Presidency of the European Commission had been nominated before the elections. And this means a lot.
Political Framework
Scientific misconduct is a real problem, although in many countries it is still underestimated. Fabrication or falsification of data, altered images, plagiarism and other bad practices can affect the scientific community, compromising the public's trust in scientific practice as a whole.
The Scientific Council of CNRS (Comitè National de la Recherche Scientifique) has raised alert toward the political power and the civil society in France in regard to the risks that the research system is running as a consequence of poor availability of human and financial resources. This appeal/alarm is supported by two publications.
European research is fundamental for guaranteeing future competitiveness to our economies, as acknowledged by all EU member States that committed to reach investments in research and development equal to 3% of GDP. Up to date, however, the funds allocated by the 28 Countries of the Union remain below the 2% of GDP and on average do not exceed 0.7% (Fig. 1). Some Nations, however, are reversing their route.
The legislative decree recently approved by the Council of Ministers for the implementation of EU 2010/63 directive is full of holes. The European dictate that it has been quite “mistreated” by the Italian Parliament Commissions – which he had the misfortune to encounter – in particular for two “memorable” cheap shots. Poor figure apart, many are asking now if the Italian law is ready to be thrown away yet, perhaps by appealing to the European Court of Justice.
It happened again: after the Israeli case, Horizon 2020 is anew in the middle of a political clash. This time the situation is even worse than the Israel one, both because it is within the European geographical region and because Switzerland had been a key player in the previous Seventh Framework Program.
On the stage where the so-called “Stamina case” is being performed – a tragedy disguised as a farce – reflectors have not lightened yet the female protagonists, who are still remaining in the shadows. Or maybe there is where the male actors want to keep them: the star, Davide Vannoni; his right-hand man, Marino Andolina; the deus ex machina, Gianfranco Merizzi, president of Medestea, the company holder of the proprietary rights for the so-called “Stamina method”.
Milan may be considered one of the main centers of Italian research, at least in its international and cooperative dimension, as it is demonstrated by the data regarding the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) that Scienceonthenet have analyzed(1). From such data, the great research centers of Milan clearly stands out, especially in the fields of biomedicine, energy and information technology, but there are also hundreds of small enterprises that collaborate with partners from abroad, in a “Europe of knowledge” that is still to be fully discovered.
According to Patrick Cunningham, professor of animal genetics and scientific consultant for the Irish Government, research needs to be rethought by remodelling its priorities. In an article published on October, 24, on Nature, Cunningham underlines that we are fully in economic recession and states that the only way out is by increasing, not diminishing, the investments in research and development.
In three decades the world can change of a lot. And it did: Cold War ended and several others started; new nations were born while globalisation kicked in. Yet one thing didn't seem to stop: growth of research. In the history of mankind there has never been as much scientific research as there is now, with millions of scientists and several thousands of institutions working every day.
The Italian CNR - the National Research Council - will be turning 90 next November. Its President, Luigi Nicolais (a chemical engineer, also member of Gruppo 2003), last September 30 celebrated the birthday of our most important public research body at its head office in Rome with an essential, but significant, ceremony.
Quantifying the importance of a research center is a complex task. It is difficult to find an agreement on evaluation metrics – such as publications, funds or the number of researchers – for the results obtained.
Adriano Buzzati Traverso will be remembered as scientist, professor and, above all, as manager of a research with no boundaries: during his frequent journeys abroad - on this or the other side of the Atlantic - he rapidly realized that bioscientific research in Italy had to get rid of any provincialism, empowering the exchanges with more advanced countries. Establishing the International Laboratory of Genetics and Biop
The Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano, is one of the most mindful political figures in regards to science and its values. And he is also extremely aware of the role played by science in our society. For these reasons, it was no surprise when he appointed Carlo Rubbia senator for life. Firstly, the particle physicist born in Gorizia the 31st March 1934 is the only “living” Italian Noble prize’s winner – since Renato Dulbecco and Rita Levi Montalcini (a senator for life herself) died last year.
“Why should we throw away assisted fertilization embryonic cells that will never be used? Shouldn’t we utilize them for research instead? Discarding them is not only against science, is against logic and common sense too. How would you explain it to ill people? They, especially the most unlucky, know perfectly well that research on embryonic cells will tell us if in the future we will be able to cure diseases with stem cells, in case also adult ones.
Just as happened in Italy after the VQR report has released, a counter-assessment was also given to the Jiao Tong University ranking, concerning the best universities in a global scenario, published on august 2013. "That ranking does not reflect our academic system" were the words of Genvieve Fioraso, French Minister of Higher Education and research.
Telethon Scientific and Medical Committee assigned few days ago the new grants for 2013. Projects selection is extremely rigorous and articulate: Telethon, in fact, follows the same process of the US National Institute of Health, which only honours merit and is considered the best in the world. Scientific publications from Telethon Research, on average, obtain 60% more citations than the US average (based on Thomson Reuters citation-index calculations).
“Chinese Universities are getting too successful. Tell them to stop. We need workers more than graduates. Workers are not enough, whilst academics cannot find a job”.
Our youngsters are keeping up despite the mounting difficulties. Italy, however, has lost any residual appeal. The ERC junior selection for 2013 – i.e. the grants for young researchers from the European Union and associated countries, just assigned by the European Research Council – could have not been much clearer.
A competition was launched by the European Commission in order to find the proper name for the new integrated funding system that will follow the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for the funding of research and technological development. The chosen name, Horizon 2020, aims to represent a new perspective towards simplification and the necessity to break down those barriers that still constitute and obstacle for a single market for knowledge, research and innovation within Europe.
On April 29 2013, Barack Obama left his busy political agenda to go to speak to the members of the National Academy of Science (NAS) at their annual meeting. He went there after being reelected to remind them that the President of the United Sates is well aware that science and technology are extremely important for America and he wanted to personally pass on this message, highlighting that in a moment of serious economic difficulty the country cannot cut research investment funds, because it is innovation which gives energy (powers) to t
The cover of Time, which at the end of last year was dedicated to Fabiola Gianotti, is certainly recognition of introductory science, or as it is known today, curiosity-driven science. Research which serves no immediate objective other than to satisfy interest and increase knowledge of natural phenomenons.
The brain is probably the most complex structure in the known universe, complex enough to coordinate movements, gather and organize lots of sensorial data, perform abstract reasoning and develop new ideas. Understanding the mechanisms underlying brain function is therefore one of the biggest challenges of contemporary science. A deeper comprehension of the brain is not only a central issue for pure science but would have an enormous impact for the whole society.
Who said that research does not pay? That this is not the case is demonstrated by the Human Genome Project, launched by the U.S. in 1999 at a cost of slightly less than $ 4 billion in 10 years but that, to date, has yielded $ 796 billions in business activities and has created 310,000 new jobs.
Again this year, the Telethon marathon ensured 30 million euro (a little more is expected in June, with the closing of the balance sheet), most of which will be used to fund cutting edge research on genetic diseases. A good economic result, therefore, with some concern due to the growth in applications for grants by almost one third, many of which are polycentric.
The theme of scientific research has been totally neglected in the election campaign, which has paid no more than lip service to this issue. Italian scientific research needs a better future, made up of strategic investments, planning, transparency and merit-based incentives. Most of all, Italy needs a productive and competitive scientific research in order to put an end to the decline to which it is heading in the wake of the current severe economic and financial crisis. Our country needs new jobs and an economy that gets back to growth.
At present, there is lots of focus on discussions for MIUR (Ministry of Education, Universities and Research) to establish an Agency, ANVUR (National Agency for Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes), with the objective of assessing the scientific results of various Italian research groups. There is no doubt over the importance of such activity as the Group2003 demonstrated in their constituent Manifesto and repeated multiple times.
Over the last months some epistemologically worrying events have occurred in the scientific community. The first concerns the prohibition to publish the experimental methods concerning how the virus N5H1 has been modified; the second regards published scientific papers with totally or partially non-disclosed data; and the third a potential step back with open access policies for scientific publishing.
In a few days the European Court of Justice shall issue its ruling on lawsuit no. C--36/11, Pioneer Hi-Bred Italia Srl vs. MIPAF (Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry), which deals with the compatibility between EU and Italian legislation on the authorization to cultivate the GMO varieties included in European Common Catalogue.
The figures give an idea of what Maria Ines Colnaghi, the AIRC Scientific Director, considers to be a titanic task.
Scientific research and innovation are one of the challenges that will decide Italy's future. The 2003 Group (http://www.gruppo2003.org), which gathers scientists frequently quoted in the international scientific literature, intends to contribute with its reflections and proposals to this critical moment in the life of our Country.
I thought about what could be done usefully to compare the Italian and British Universities systems, but it’s a daunting task. But I can’t help noticing how many of your colleagues have worked at British and US universities and probably, between yourselves, you have enough insight. But there are important themes. The following is somewhat digressive and I hope some of you might have the patience to read it to the end.
"The future can be yours! Last chance!" The motto of Jeffrey Goines, the character in the post-apocalyptic science fiction film Twelve Monkeys directed by Terry Gilliam in 1995, has never been more relevant. Let's see why. In 1978, the French explorer and oceanographer Jacques Cousteau proposed the idea that the interests of people not yet born had to be protected, i.e. of those who are reading this article right now, by means of a Bill of Rights of future generations.
The European Commission's proposal will be made public only at the end of next November. However, Nature magazine was recently able to anticipate the main news that, according to the “Bruxelles government”, will form part of Horizon 2020, the European financing program for research that, as from 2014 up to 2020, will substitute the FP7, the Seventh Framework Program which expires in 2013.
In his recent article on Scienzainrete, Pier Mannuccio Mannucci mentioned it as a positive example. The Gruppo 2003 also cited it as a good practice in its Manifesto for a scientific research revival in Italy. What we're talking about is the evaluation system adopted by Telethon to fund research projects.
With Gaetano Di Chiara's work, "Scienza in rete" relaunches the debate on the assessment criteria overseeing research, which is important for the future of universities and research in our country. We invite readers to participate in the discussion by leaving their comments.
An epidemic of politics, this is what plagues science in many countries around the world, even in mature democracies like the United States and Italy. In the U.S., President George Bush has strongly interfered with the freedom of scientific research. The same thing happened in Italy in several historical periods: immediately after the Unification of Italy, during Fascism and in the last two decades.
Research is changing the world. The research world is changing. This is, in a nutshell, the framework outlined by experts of the National Science Board in Science and Engineering Indicators which the U.S. National Science Foundation publishes, generally, every two years.
