Italian budget cuts surprise researchers

Science : On 6 July, the Italian government announced a set of budget cuts that would eliminate €26 billion ($32 billion) from the budgets of more than a dozen national research institutes. Over the next three years, Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics, many of whose researchers are members of the experimental groups at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, would lose 20% of its €278 million budget, and its National Research Council, which funds private research, would lose almost 10% of its €1 billion budget. The National Research Institute for Food and Nutrition would completely lose its funding. The government has not explained its reasoning for the cuts. Scientists have 60 days to persuade legislators to change their minds. A similar situation in Canada led scientists to hold a protest outside the Canadian legislature.