Silvio Berlusconi and Letizia Moratti Credit: AP Photo/Plinio Lepri

Newly elected Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has merged the Ministry of University and Science and Technological Research and the Public Education Ministry and appointed a media businesswoman, Letizia Moratti, with no scientific experience to run the 'superministry'.

Moratti has announced that she aims to implement a culture of entrepreneurialism throughout Italian science. To this end, viceminister of research Guido Possa told Nature Medicine that the government has lifted a ban on publicly funded investigators holding financial interests in research work. “Scientists who were prohibited from holding shares can do so, and we hope this will cultivate a taste for [financial reward] and flexibility throughout the university system,” he said. As part of the new approach, there will be a deliberate effort to award government funding to universities that demonstrate the ability to set up companies and patent discoveries—old news in the US and the UK, but a revolutionary effort for Italian science.