PEOPLE
FOR AN ITALIAN RESEARCH STRATEGY BEYOND THE PNRR
Interview with Luigi Ambrosio, Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore, coordinator of the Technical Working Group established by the MUR (Italian Ministry of Universities and Research) to develop a national strategy for fundamental research
The final document of the Technical Working Group established by the Minister of Universities and Research, Maria Cristina Messa, has been published, in order to formulate proposals for an italian strategy on fundamental research. The work carried out by the Technical Working Group, coordinated by Luigi Ambrosio, Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore and consisting of Ugo Amaldi of CERN, Ariela Benigni of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Paola Inverardi of the University of L'Aquila and newly appointed rector of the Gran Sasso Science Institute, Francesco Loreto of the Federico II University of Naples, Gianfranco Pacchioni of the University of Milan Bicocca, Angela Santoni of the Sapienza University of Rome, and Luisa Torsi of the Aldo Moro University of Bari, provides a careful analysis of the state of public research and concrete proposals to give solidity to the system. Starting from the study of certain structural problems of Italian research, the Technical Working Group went on to formulate a number of organisational proposals and an indication of an additional plan, compared to that already planned, of multi-year resources for national public research so as to ensure its excellence and competitiveness at the international level. In particular, it is proposed to stabilise public spending on research at the level of at least 0.7% of GDP: this investment would ensure that upcoming investments from projects funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) are not wasted. ...
What is the background to the MUR's initiative to establish a Technical Working Group for a national fundamental research strategy?
Already in 2021 there had been an appeal signed by Lincean Academics in favour of research, in which quite specific targets were proposed to be achieved, European-level targets in the ratio of public investment in research to the country's GDP. There were two appeals, to two different governments, the Conte government and the Draghi government.NEWS
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
ITALIAN GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS THE ET PROJECT IN SARDINIA
Full support from the Italian government for the candidacy of the Sos Enattos site in Sardinia as the site of the future Einstein Gravitational Wave Telescope. This was confirmed by Prime Minister Mario Draghi in a letter addressed to INFN President, Antonio Zoccoli.
AWARD
BREAKTHROUGH NEW HORIZONS IN PHYSICS PRIZE GOES TO ANNA GRASSELLINO
Anna Grassellino, senior research scientist at Fermilab in Chicago and director of Fermilab's SQMS Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Centre, was awarded the Breakthrough New Horizons Prize “for the discovery of major performance improvements in niobium superconducting radiofrequency cavities, with applications ranging from accelerator physics to quantum devices”.
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
ITALY-SOUTH AFRICA: NEW AGREEMENT SIGNED BETWEEN INFN AND ITHEMBA
INFN and the National Research Foundation (NRF), with iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Science, signed a memorandum of understanding on 12 September in Cape Town that strengthens the collaboration between Italy and South Africa in the field of nuclear physics and its applications.
AWARD
THE 2022 GIUSEPPE OCCHIALINI PRIZE GOES TO MARIO NICODEMI
Mario Nicodemi, coordinator of the Naples INFN Theoretical Group and Professor at the Federico II University of Naples, was awarded the Giuseppe Occhialini Medal for Physics at an awards ceremony held in Milan on 12 September during the 108th National Congress of the Italian Physical Society (SIF).
EDUCATIONAL
ART&SCIENCE ACROSS ITALY, NEW EDITION GETS UNDERWAY
The 4th edition of Art&Science Across Italy, INFN's European project in collaboration with CERN aimed at secondary schools to promote STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art and Mathematics) disciplines through dialogue with art, has got underway.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
INFN AT THE EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS’ NIGHT
A week of science and research that involved all of Italy and culminated on Friday, 30 September with the European Researchers’ Night, the evening dedicated to scientific research promoted by the European Union, which has been bringing science to Europe's public squares since 2005, mainly through the stories of those who experience research firsthand.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
WHAT NEXT? YOUNG PEOPLE DISCOVER AND TELL PARTICLE PHYSICS AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY
130 young people from all over Italy, 12 visits to the laboratories of INFN and other research centres, particle physics and its many applications for the benefit of society and, above all, a great deal of passion for scientific research.
FOCUS
HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS: QUANTUM SIMULATOR STUDIES NEW STATES OF MATTER
A new study has demonstrated the possibility of a new state of matter, by trapping atoms in "crystals" of laser light. The study was conducted by an Italian collaboration including researchers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Florence, INFN, the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), the National Institute of Optics of the National Research Council (CNR-INO) and the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA). The work, published on 23 September in the journal Nature Physics, saw a significant contribution from INFN, which co-funded the research as part of the FISh experiment, in the context of which the experimental methodologies used were developed. This result could be a first step toward the development of room-temperature superconducting materials. ...
TAKE PART IN
PARTICLES AND QUANTA AT THE GENOA FESTIVAL
INFN events at the Genoa Science Festival, now in its 20th year, are back for 2022. Running from 20 October to 1 November with the theme "Languages," the festival will host lectures, art installations and workshops for schools by INFN. The 10th anniversary of the Higgs boson's discovery will be celebrated with a spectacular videomapping created on the facade of Palazzo Ducale, in the heart of the festival and the city, and by a dedicated conference show, the second after the Festival's opening event, also curated by INFN, focusing on the fascinating and counterintuitive world of quantum physics. All the events will be held in Italian.
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