Maria Chiara Carrozza's appeal to the Giffoners: “Commit to change Italy".
“The real issue is to help everyone. Everyone must have the conditions to study. You must fight against all marginalization and all discrimination”, this is the message that Maria Chiara Carrozza, president of the National Research Council, entrusts to the kids of Giffoni Impact!.
He does so with great emotional participation because this is the ground on which the quality of a democracy is measured: “Do not determine conditions for access to study or do not combat school dropout - adds - represent the greatest defeat of the Italian Constitution, because it is based on these values. You must fight to overcome these barriers, these are the values that you must bring into society".
Welcoming Professor Carrozza was the founder of Giffoni, Claudio Gubitosi: “It is a pride and a privilege – He says - to have her here with us today.” And the collaboration between the CNR and Giffoni seems to be destined to have new outlets and new perspectives:
"I'm sure - has explained - that as Cnr we should learn to communicate more. Research for me has always been a great opportunity for freedom because doing research gives you the chance to express your creativity and your ingenuity. Of course, there are difficulties linked above all to stability. I was therefore thinking on the occasion of the centenary of the Cnr which falls next year of involving the Giffoni community to develop, for example, a mini-series dedicated to the stories of researchers. Without names and surnames, depersonalizing them, but with the aim of making them known”.
The meeting with the Giffoners was an opportunity to take stock of the state of health of research in Italy: "Research – said the president of the CNR – needs investment. This is why the relationship between science and politics has always been very strong. Today we have a great opportunity represented by the PNRR which has invested a lot in research. The next legislature will be the one called to implement the plan. The challenge is therefore this: to rediscover the meaning of bureaucracy as a recovery of its function of democratic control and eliminate everything that has been invented and stratified over the years to prevent things from working”.
Investments are crucial for research. But they do not necessarily have to come from the public: “The fundamental principle – explains Carrozza – is that researchers must be paid, but must be free at the same time. The evaluation of the validity of a project must be done among peers, by the scientific community. Politics must not influence too much the areas in which to do research. These are essential points. In the transformation of science into technology, the scientific method is needed, which means experimentation. The State must guarantee all this”.
What makes other countries more attractive on the research front compared to Italy? Probably the possibility of career growth. In Italy, the researcher's career is, on the contrary, a somewhat static one: "In Italy – adds Professor Carrozza – we do not provide growth opportunities and we do not provide incentives on salaries. We should let those who want to do more get more. If you want to build our country then I tell you to stay in Italy. If you want to go abroad, go ahead but do not stop giving your contribution to Italy from there too. The important thing is to do research, but always have your country at heart”.
Orientation, this unknown. It is the SOS that many kids launch in the hall: we study and we do not know how to move in the world of work. We study too much theoretically, we lack practice. President Carrozza shares these analyses: “After the experience at the Cnr - He says - I am thinking of launching a foundation that deals with this very thing. This is the big difference between state universities and non-state universities. The latter do a lot of networking to create opportunities for internships or apprenticeships. The big public universities don't do this because they believe that their role is to give a certificate”.
The university must change and those who attend it today must encourage this revolution: "You have to – concludes the president Maria Chiara Carrozza – to change Italy. If the university does not have guidance and introduction to the world of work behind it, it risks becoming a great illusion. I hope that your generation demands and obtains this change”.
Article published on 29 July 2022 - 11:03
