Italy's National Research Council (CNR) is this week breaking from its much-criticized practice of filling key posts from within its ranks, and is advertising internationally for scientists to head some of its institutes.

The positions are the first to arise under a reorganization that will combine some 300 CNR institutes and university-based centres into 95 larger units. This is the first step in a reform programme to make the CNR more efficient (see Nature 394, 712; 1998).

The appointments are for four-year renewable terms. Each new director will be responsible for coordinating research programmes at the merged centres and institutes.

Most scientists agree that the new arrangement will promote collaborative research, but say that, with no extra money available for research, it is not ideal.

Some observers are also sceptical about whether outsiders will find the new directorships attractive. For example, they will have few opportunities to build their own research teams. This is “a weakness in the process”, says John Guardiola, head of the CNR International Institute of Genetics and Biophysics in Naples.

Arturo Falaschi, the director of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Trieste, is more optimistic. Together with an expected competition to attract 1,000 researchers, he says advertising the directorships could help to address problems such as gender imbalance.