Two years ago exactly I wrote to President Moratti Inter to ask him to make a small financial effort (compared to the salaries it pays its players) and fund the research of my laboratory for 3 years. The letter-appeal was also published by "Panorama" with the title "Dear Moratti I write" (see photo on blog), but unfortunately Moratti never replied, even with two lines of circumstances.
Saturday 6 and Sunday, November 7 all the teams in Serie A and B are on the field with a goal for the research initiative, sponsored by the AIRC. Some players like Javier Zanetti, Inter captain, will support the initiative. For this reason, a good Inter fan, I decided to write a Javier Zanetti on this blog and publish the text of the letter. The aim is to raise awareness of the healthy part of the football world than basic research in Italy has always been mistreated, "Cinderella" and suffers from the cuts the government and ignored by private foundations as AIRC and Telethon.
Dear Captain,
I am a professor of genetics at La Sapienza University of Rome, always Nerazzurri fans. Today and tomorrow the world of football will support the AIRC for cancer research and you're one of the main testimonal. This is an excellent initiative, but let me write to point out that in Italy, oltre alla ricerca applicata, sostenuta da fondazioni private, esiste anche la ricerca pubblica di base che ormai sta morendo per mancanza di fondi.
AIRC e TELETHON finanziano esclusivamente la ricerca applicata in campo biomedico , che ha come obiettivo primario l’utilizzo delle conoscenze per fini pratici (ad esempio, la cura di malattie genetiche e tumori). La ricerca di base , anche detta pura, ha invece come scopo l'avanzamento della conoscenza e la delucidazione di determinati fenomeni fisici, chimici, biologici. La ricerca di base produce idee , cultura, prodotti immateriali ed è un'attività fondamentale perchè rappresenta the real engine of scientific progress and technological : without basic research and applied research would not exist.
Unfortunately in Italy the basic research has always been ignored by politicians: just talk and pretty words, but few concrete actions. In recent years, moreover, the ministerial funds (already scarce), intended for university research projects, are now dramatically insufficient. Because of this, we university researchers are working in increasingly precarious conditions and difficult and many young people are fleeing abroad for lack of prospects. The situation is similar for public research institutions such as CNR.
Two years ago I launched the slogan " football for research" and not "kick the research , sending an appeal to the President Moratti that, unfortunately, to my great regret, he never responded. Now I turn to you and to the healthy part of football, to ask a real help to promote basic research and the many valid Italian researchers in universities and public research institutions at risk of having to abandon their studies for lack of financial and human resources.
I greet you with great respect and I wish you another year full of success!
Patrizio Dimitri
