ROME (HRNW) – Italian physicist Giorgio Parisi will receive a shared Nobel prize at a ceremony Monday, but behind the celebrations is consternation at the brain-drain that for years has seen many young scientists leave to work abroad.
Some 14,000 Italian researchers quit the country between 2009 and 2015, according to Italy’s national statistics agency Istat — a trend explained in large part by a lack of investment.
“Italy is not a welcoming country for researchers, whether Italian or foreign,” Parisi said in October after being awarded the Nobel prize for his work on the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems.
“Research is underfunded and the situation has worsened over the past 10-15 years.”
Government funding fell from 9.9 billion euros ($11.2 billion) in 2007 to 8.3 billion in 2015 — the latest figures available — while in 2019, research spending in the eurozone’s third largest economy was significantly below the EU average.
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