EU research budget boost

flee abroad, while none from outside Italy can penetrate the system. After various reforms and several rounds of decentralisation followed by recentralisation, the whole process may have to be reconstructed from scratch. " A recent bill passed last year intends to [...] promote meritocracy, " Calef adds, " but it is not very clear whether it can succeed. " This is a particularly sensitive area, as the Berlusconi government has been accused of filling high-ranking posts in the science administration based on political favoritism rather than scientific merit. The journal Nature listed three high-level appointees whose supposed scientific credentials didn't withstand scrutiny, and accused two of them of " playing safe by doing nothing ". Emanuele Paci, an Italian researcher based in the UK, comments: " The people that Berlusconi finds are often ludicrous. I wonder whether nobody else is willing to be appointed by Berlusconi, or if he did it with scorn, knowing that most of the people in university and research are against him. " Following Prodi's narrow election victory, many scientists are cautiously optimistic. " The results were not as good as I hoped, but still good in the sense that all must change. The situation is terrible, but everybody is aware that it cannot change in one day, " says Paci. David Calef fears, however, that there is a deep cultural problem at the bottom of all this. " Ultimately, the political class does not seem to care much about science and technology, " he says. " All they seem to be interested in is making Italy the tourist attraction of the world. " Given that sunshine and landscapes are free, his arguments suggest, it seems to be easier and cheaper to live off the triumphs of the Roman emperors and Renaissance painters than to come up with winning strategies for the future. Michael Gross is a science writer based at Oxford. He can be contacted via his web page at www.proseandpassion.com A political deal in Strasbourg last month has revealed the likely budget of the European Union's next seven-year tranche of research funding which may prove a big boost to member states with low levels of national funding. The European Parliament, the EU Council of Ministers and European Commission representatives have struck a 48 billion euro deal in an overall agreement on the Brussels budget for 2007–13. Officials warn that there could be some budgetary …