«Research is not an expense, it is an investment in the future and it is a great element of support for civil protection which is not only protection but also prevention. We have put around a billion and a half into research, 436 million of Italian funds for science and I think 90-odd million euros for infrastructure. This year’s ordinary financing fund, which also includes research, increased by 336 million compared to last year.”
The Minister of University and Research Anna Maria Bernini said this while speaking at the University of Calabria in Rende (Cosenza) at the inaugural initiative of the National Civil Protection Week 2025 in which the head of Civil Protection Fabio Ciciliano and the rector Nicola Leone also participate.
«We – he added – live in a wonderful, stupendous, but very fragile country, where we have many risks that we can not only try to compress and support when they appear, but above all prevent and contain. Therefore prevention or early diagnosis of risks such as landslides, floods, and, unfortunately, earthquakes. The strength of civil protection is having a great connection with research that allows us to understand earlier, perhaps to prepare tools earlier that have less impact or even avoid traumatic events which unfortunately are part of this wonderful, beautiful, but very fragile Italy.” «The invitation to responsible behavior – said the minister – is aimed at everyone, even myself. I expect, as a trainer, as organizer of a group of trainers, responsible behavior. The first to be responsible must be the teachers. Students can sometimes afford not to know things, but teachers, the minister, must be responsible, they must provide guidance, they must have the ability and strength to explain things as they are, never take anything for granted, explain to students that we are living in a complicated but beautiful time, in which we are training for skills, professions, jobs that in part do not yet exist, with technologies that are being formed along the way. So we must be ourselves, first, elastic, flexible. We must know how to orient them, tell them the truth, explain to them, as far as we know ourselves, what the world awaits them, and above all be multidisciplinary and capable of maintaining relationships with the world. In my opinion, this is the right perspective and no one can be a partner in this orientation better than civil protection.”
