While UNICAL celebrated the European night of researchers with scientific dissemination events, on the Bucci bridge waved the banner “Basta precariat of state” which told the other side of the medal. A small army of scientists with atypical and fixed -term contracts of the CNR has chosen this opportunity to denounce a reality that undermines the future of Italian research to the foundations.
In Calabria the situation is dramatic: about 70-80 researchers live in the uncertainty of precarious contracts, scholarships and research allowances. In the last year, competitions have been banned for the hiring of just 2 researchers, while brilliant scientists have already lost their jobs in August for contractual deadline. Most of the projects currently underway are financed by the PNRR and will end in December 2025, leaving an unbridgeable void. The consequences are devastating: strategic research on neurodegenerative diseases, prevention of hydrogeological instability, management of landslides and floods, purification of water and innovations in agriculture and many others are likely to stop.
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