Last week’s Italian general election saw a clear victory for the right-wing coalition, with far-right leader Giorgia Meloni becoming the first female prime minister in a country where political leaders were overwhelmingly male.

But researchers have little hope that the new government will boost Italy’s underfunded research system. Some worry.

“I have great hopes for the foreseeable future,” said Federico Ronchetti, a physicist at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Frascati, who launched a petition to double Italy’s public investment in research in 2020. does not have

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Science barely featured in the electoral campaigns, including those of the winning coalition. “However, this does not mean that this absence will be reflected in future government actions. At least I hope so. Milan.

However, the name of the leader of Italy’s main research-funding agency, the Ministry of Universities and Research, has yet to be proposed as the right-wing coalition sets out to form a new government. Cattaneo says it’s a “sign of a lack of interest” in science.

Meloni and her team Nature.

money problem

Spending on R&D is about 1.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Italy lags the average of European Union countries at about 2.2%. Most research funding comes from industry, and public investment accounts for only about 0.5% of Italy’s GDP. Between 2008 and 2019 he left the country with about 14,000 Italian researchers. This trend can be partially explained by reduced research budgets.

Some researchers now fear further cuts in funding for public research under the new government. “Past right-wing governments have drastically cut back on spending on science,” says Mario Pianta, an economist at the Higher Normale School in Florence. The Meloni government will also face additional challenges, he said. Italy’s economy has been hit by high energy costs, rapid inflation and rising public debt. In this context, Pianta notes, “reductions in research spending are politically easier to achieve than cuts in other public expenditures.”

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The previous government, led by technocrat Mario Draghi, tried to use some of the pandemic recovery funds from the European Union to boost science in Italy. The investment plan allocated around €11 billion (US$11 billion) to research.

During the campaign, Mr Meloni said he intended to “update” the plan amid rising prices caused by the war in Ukraine. I am concerned that it may be transferred. Perhaps to ensure a stable energy supply, or for industries such as tourism.

Some are concerned about Meloni’s attitude towards scientists. criticized the restrictions introduced by

climate concerns

Ahead of the election, all major Italian political parties, including Meloni’s Italian brothers, agreed to set up an advisory board to assess climate and environmental issues and advise the new government.

However, these issues do not appear to be top priorities for Meloni’s party. In an independent analysis of both parties’ climate and environmental commitments, Brothers of Italy was jointly ranked last. Its promise of a practical response to the climate crisis was “insufficient,” says Stefano Casellini, a climate scientist at Politecnico di Milano who led the analysis. “The need to move away from fossil fuels was not clear,” he adds.

Meloni’s election manifesto mentioned incentives for agricultural innovation. Agricultural geneticists believe that genome-editing techniques, which could help make plants more resilient to disease and changing environmental conditions, have limited their use in Italy, and will eventually become more popular in Europe. It hopes to be exempt from existing laws that are widely used. says geneticist Enrico Pe. But Meloni’s plan offers no concrete suggestions, he says. “I do not know what will happen.”

A task force set up by the previous administration to review project proposals and recommend increasing public funding and changing the way funding is distributed by creating bodies that “operate according to international standards.” I made a plan. So far, it’s unclear whether the new government will reshuffle the many institutions that evaluate universities and public research institutes, but Meloni has promised his 10-year research funding strategy. Alberto Baccini, an economist at the University of Siena, says this would be a welcome change, as Italian funding for science tends to be volatile and lack long-term planning. But without more funding, “planning for the long term doesn’t make much of a difference,” he adds.