I mean Silvio Berlusconi, or better the new Minister of Education Mariastella Gelmini that proposed part of the new law approved by the Italian Government that will impose severe cuts to the funds for Universities in Italy.
Among the other things, one of the most worring is the reduction of the staff turnover with the block of new researchers’ hiring. In particular, in the next years (till 2011) it will be possible to open a position for a new researcher every 5 retirements. What? It seems incredible… but I don’t even have the energies to partecipate to the protest. I’m fed up. Italian researchers are paid less than all the other European countries. Their work is not rewarded, there is little money for research activities, the carrier path is long, with years of short-term badly-paid post-doc employment. And now even this… the temporary employment can become nearly endless. Moreover, even if you are competitive in reserach, this is not evaluated in any way from the Central Government, that treats everyone in the same way.
I was happy for the results obtained by Politecnico di Milano that classified as the best Italian University, and also after the peer review conducted by the Imperial College, where most of the research groups at Politecnico where judged “Excellent at International Level” (here is the link to my group).
But this is not taken into account in any way when deciding how to distribute funds… or better how to cut them.
By the way, it seems that Silvio is solving my problems. I’m near the end of my PhD and I keep asking myself what I would like to do next: stay in Italy or go abroad… It seems they are just helping my decision at the end, even if I would have preferred to have at least the choice.

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