Italy's research minister, Ortensio Zecchino, has announced the creation of a national neuroscience network to be supported by an annual fund of IL 40 billion (US$ 20 million)—more than doubling public investment in neuroscience research. The country's five leading neuroscience centers are expected to make up the core of the network (see table), and a 29-member committee will meet for the first time on 4 May to begin selecting additional centers.

Table 1 Italy's top five neuroscience centers based on ISI ratings
Full size table

According to Vincenzo Sica, undersecretary of state for research, “neuroscience is a key part of a major move to raise general research spending from its current level of 1.2% GDP to 2.4% in the next triennium.” Neuroscience research has been singled out as the first part of this program because of new advances in the field within the past decade.

Inclusion criteria for the network will be based on international ranking systems, such as the ISI citations, and the ability of a center to establish a more integrated approach of different disciplines. Jacopo Meldolesi, director of the neuroscience department at Istituto Scientifico San Raffaele, Milan, who sits on the committee, says, “The challenge now is to explore the frontiers between branches, such as molecular genetics and cell biology, that so far have developed almost independently.” However, many scientists from smaller groups are concerned about the criteria for joining the network.

PierGiorgio Strata, head of the Rita Levi-Montalcini Center for Brain Repair, University of Turin, chairman of the committee and the most active proponent for the creation of the new network, insists that the smaller groups “…will be carefully considered as offering potential for strengthening Italy's neuroscience within the new network.” The complete listing of groups within the network is expected to be announced at the end of June.