(Source: Corriere della Sera 04/11/2003 )
"We rely mainly on existing institutions and young researchers forgotten"
"I think there is not much awareness of what it means to the creation of such a body: everything is much more complicated than you imagine. None, however, asked me what I think. Instead I see that there is a deafening silence on the other Italians existing research institutions like the National Research Council, Institute of Nuclear Physics, the same Aeneas. To start collecting some fruit from a new institution will require a decade and Meanwhile, what happens to other bodies? And why create another one if those already in place can do the same things? Of these, however, is no longer spoken. We solve the problems that we save but what good offer and support them with a development policy. We spend 100 million euro a year to the baby when the whole body of the State contribution Enea, 3,700 employees and 10 laboratories, is 200 million euro per year. What then is to make the elusive Italian Mit is obscure. "
should conduct applied research ...
"Applied research is a banality. As Einstein said there are only research applications. But first we must invest in basic science. Today we would not have if genetic engineering Watson and Crick had not discovered the structure of DNA fifty years ago. Focusing only on applied research is a big mistake. "
So what we have to focus on?
"on researchers. In speeches that are heard in recent times we forget the men and women doing research. We pursue foreign models but are barred for three years while the recruitment and today the average age of workers is around 50 years, and then out of play. In the meantime we beyond the new generations from which come the results. In other words, it has lost the focus of discussion. "
And then what do you believe you should invest?
"On the infrastructure, tools, and in our schools are old, outdated and do not allow us to be competitive. We must re-start the public research laboratories fill of youth and the masses will flourish. "
Minister Letizia Moratti has launched a research strategy. It is not appropriate?
"were made only general guidelines. Might be okay but still there is no real plan for to clarify what you want to do and, above all, with what resources. That plan, then, should be built with the assistance of scientists and not sent down from above. So waste time and go backwards rather than forward. "
The government wants to get to the end of the legislature to spend 1% of GDP in public research, while another 1% to be provided by the private world ...
'We have two years to the end of the legislature and I see no changes in perspective in relation to existing resources at the end will be the usual 1%, all inclusive. Hiding behind the international economic difficulties do not need. The Nordic countries are in same condition but invest around 3% and figures as heavy devote France, Germany, Japan and the USA. We have forgotten that Europe's research ministers in Barcelona in 2000 committed themselves to reach in ten years at a cost to the EU, accounting for 3% of GDP. "
renewing facilities, open to young people and ensuring that resources could emerge from the bottom of international statistics in which we find ourselves in innovation and competitiveness?
"No. It also takes a change of method. In Italy you are working with the mentality of the individual researcher. Instead, today, to win you need to make the team. Then we need to change the way you manage your search. An example: in '99 Enea presented a plan that hydrogen was to be financed with money recovered from the UMTS mobile licenses. They were guaranteed 100 million euro. Then everything was complicated and only earlier this year we began an evaluation, but with limited availability in fourth. Conclusion: they lost four years. A researcher engaged on this front, what should be done in the meantime? ".
to improve things is useful to try to bring home Italian scientists working abroad?
"In no foreign country would dream of launching such an operation. I worry especially those who are in Italy. We have so many great minds that do not have the chance to express themselves: think of them instead of returning men with the illusion of not paying taxes to encourage them. We think not to escape what we have, which are now accepted as good career abroad where they do. And who would do what works abroad in Italy, without resources for research, without infrastructure, without adequate organization? ".
There is a plan of research, but it seems impossible even to have an energy plan ...
"Italy ranks first in the world price of electricity. Why industrial and citizens have to spend so much? The problem is in the production of old systems in a system adapted to never need. "
Enel collaborates with the French to study a new type of nuclear reactor EPR (European Pressurized-Water Reactor) ...
"It's a dinosaur, an old reactor that seek to modernize and that will eventually power production costs are too high."
on what you should invest for the future?
"On the nuclear and solar sure already exists. You can make the closed-loop reactors that do not have the problem of waste. And with the solar and nuclear energy can develop hydrogen energy coming really clean and without end. But still I do not see the horizon strategies or decisions. "
Giovanni Caprara
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