Research in Italy

There’s an interesting development in Italy: they are considering ways to “reduce public spending by streamlining the civil service,” which will affect scientists, since they are civil servants. It’s a rare case of a government shrinking, but I suspect that this is a fairly minor budget cut and is more likely to free up money for some other pet project.

The article in Nature points out that “the number of positions available is determined by the central government rather than by individual research agencies.” In other words, our public-private partnerships are somehow superior to Italy’s more overt socialist research system. Yet, American research agencies are still subject to the budgetary whims of DC – we’re just more efficient (or some such nonesense).

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10:46 am on October 16, 2008