Ortensio Zecchino

It hardly seems possible, but the planned reform of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) has become even more complicated. In an interview with Nature Medicine, Italy's new minister for research and universities, Ortensio Zecchino, who took up his post in a cabinet reshuffle last October, has insisted that he will forge ahead with most of the reforms proposed by the former government. However, if events proceed in the same anarchic fashion as they have to date, the reforms will not be ready by spring—Zecchino's deadline for their implementation.

Italy's previous government approved sweeping reforms of the CNR in a decree aimed at eliminating its role as Italy's primary public grant agency and reducing its size by shrinking the number of CNR laboratories from 300 to 100 in a bid to increase efficiency. However, the decree failed to receive complete approval before the government collapsed. Moreover, when he took office, Zecchino himself held back its approval at the end of last year—many believe on the advice of his political ally, CNR president Lucio Bianco—to evaluate the proposed changes.

Consequently, a joint parliamentary commission was formed in December to advise Zecchino on revisions to the original decree. This commission made its advice public on December 21st, and after being strongly influenced by CNR lobbyists who wanted to weaken Bianco's role, the commission proposed the creation of a special scientific network council made up of mainly CNR scientists.

This network would 'advise' the New Scientific Committee (NSC), which is to be created according to the original decree (Nature 394, 712; 1998). In turn, the NSC will advise a New Executive Committee (NEC), the creation of which was also proposed under the original decree. The NSC will evaluate research projects under a strictly advisory capacity to the NEC. Both of these new groups were to be headed by Bianco, but the parliamentary commission suggested that another president be elected to head the NSC.

Even before they returned their advice, it was widely anticipated that Zecchino would reject the parliamentary commission's proposals, which he did. Many believe that this is based on his alliance with Bianco, but Zecchino's explanation for dismissing the Commission's suggestions is that they are driven by CNR self–interest tactics. He will retain Bianco as the head of both committees as proposed in the original decree and will not introduce a scientific network council.

To avoid the criticism that his decree will change nothing and that CNR research will still be dominated by the old establishment, Zecchino told Nature Medicine that he has made some alterations to the original decree (see box).

He insists that, contrary to increasing speculation, CNR's grant–giving power will be transferred to the government. CNR's budget is IL1,050 billion (US$610 million), IL400 billion of which is spent on research. The budget is expected to increase by 30 percent in the next financial year.

But many scientists are concerned at the amount of government influence over the country's research that the changes will bring, and they doubt whether the 15 member NSC—which is small compared with the literally hundreds of individuals involved previously in research decisions—will be capable of properly evaluating projects from a variety of disciplines. Zecchino tried to allay these fears in the interview: "A small panel of experts will speed up the implementation of the government's aim to develop a National Science Policy." The idea that any measure can speed up this process is a welcome one.