I cannot resist stealing the picture below, courtesy "IoNonFaccioNiente", the blog of Paolo Valente. Some context for foreigners is needed: the Italian government, in a rather untimely and shocking move, announced a 10% budget cut to the 2013 INFN, the italian institute for nuclear physics that pays my salary and significantly contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN.
The cut is unheard-of and it is "devastating", in the words of the INFN president Fernando Ferroni (pictured below before and after the government action). Humor aside, since INFN pays salaries with 55% of its budget (and it is a virtuosity to leave a significant part of the budget to finance research projects), the 10% cut is a >20% cut on the real research, since salaries cannot be touched. Layoffs are also possible, but not in the near future.
(of course "Prima" = before; "Dopo" = after).
The cut is unheard-of and it is "devastating", in the words of the INFN president Fernando Ferroni (pictured below before and after the government action). Humor aside, since INFN pays salaries with 55% of its budget (and it is a virtuosity to leave a significant part of the budget to finance research projects), the 10% cut is a >20% cut on the real research, since salaries cannot be touched. Layoffs are also possible, but not in the near future.
(of course "Prima" = before; "Dopo" = after).
Sad story though. If Italy had been more research-friendly, I most probably would have liked it a lot to consider working as a physicist in this country, which I really like a lot.
Btw, is there a difference in budgets and budget cuts comparing northern and southern Italy? Is there any research being done at all in southern Italy?