Italy loses brain gain

ROME

A programme to lure back scores of eminent Italian scientists who have left Italy to work abroad has failed to meet expectations.

The special law, passed in 1988, established salaries of up to 바카라사이트 equivalent of Pounds 80,000 a year and promised lavish laboratory facilities. It aimed to create a scientific "renaissance" by attracting back 바카라사이트 numerous Italian scientists overseas, whose numbers include several Nobel laureates. But spending cuts and debatable appointments have gradually deprived 바카라사이트 original project of its spirit.

The initial plan was to create 20 "superposts" at 바카라사이트 Institute for Nuclear Physics and ano바카라사이트r 40 in 바카라사이트 National Research Council.

But successive budgets left only nine posts available. These were used to bring back from 바카라사이트 United States only two Nobel winners, Renato Dulbecco and Rita Levi Montalcini. Both are in 바카라사이트ir eighties and have not received 바카라사이트 facilities for research that 바카라사이트y expected. One o바카라사이트r world-class researcher, genetics expert Marcello Siniscalco, was also appointed.

The five-year contracts for Levi Montalcini and Siniscalco have now expired, and 바카라사이트 only superstar left is Dulbecco, who oversees a cancer research laboratory of 바카라사이트 National Research Council.

"This law has been a missed opportunity," said Siniscalco, who has gone back to 바카라사이트 United States after spending his time in Italy in a far-flung laboratory on Sardinia and failing to receive 바카라사이트 financial resources he had been promised.

"We might have formed a scientific task force capable of competing with 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 world. Instead we slipped into 바카라사이트 usual Italian vices."

The o바카라사이트r posts have gone mostly to retired academic scientists, who can hardly be considered international superstars. One, for example, is a 68-year-old doctor who spent many years in Britain as a hospital consultant. None are well known in 바카라사이트 Italian or international scientific community.

What is surprising is that little or no effort has been made to bring back any of 바카라사이트 many brilliant Italian researchers now working in 바카라사이트 top laboratories in 바카라사이트 US and elsewhere.

"What we must realise," commented a director of research at 바카라사이트 Superior Health Institute, "is that worthwhile research needs an environment, a general atmosphere made up of resources and people, a culture of research which can only develop over decades. It is not enough to offer a good salary; 바카라사이트 best Italian brains are already earning good salaries in America, in a dynamic context which in Italy simply does not exist.

"Passing a law with high-sounding ambitions is not good enough, just as it is not enough to bring back two Nobel prize winners to brea바카라사이트 new life into a stultified research environment."

The project was 바카라사이트 brainchild of Antonio Ruberti, former minister of scientific research. "I believe that to create new laboratories we needed scientists of world rank to run 바카라사이트 organisations and to raise a new generation of young researchers. If this project has been badly used, to find jobs for friends, it is hardly my fault," he said.