In “public health research there is a lot of excellence but also a lot of precariousness “. It is the appeal that launches theAssociation of Health Researchers – Italy (Arsi) denouncing the anomalies of the PNRS, the National Health Research Program. “The stabilization of researchers must pass through the Ministry of Health, we are waiting for a meeting with Speranza“, say the leaders of the association to time.news Salute, announcing” other forms of protest after the demonstrations with the hanging coats organized last February 14 “.
“In scientific hospitalization and care institutes (Irccs) and in experimental zooprophylactic institutes (Exclude) public, the health / biomedical research institutes belonging to the Ministry of Health, work 1,600 professionals including researchers and research collaborators who, at the end of 2019, were framed with fixed-term contracts in the path known as the ‘Research Pyramid’. ‘association – This path, divided into 5 + 5 year contracts that extend the historical precariousness of public health research, has no automatic entry into the NHS at its end and is applied to personnel with an average length of service of 10 years ” .
“The lack of recognition of previous work and prospects has meant that, in the first two years of application of the Research Pyramid, dropout has already reached 50% of staff in some Institutes (national average dropout: 20%) , with very serious repercussions – the researchers warn – on the continuity of activities (including the fight against Covid) and the loss of very important know-how for public health innovation “. The stabilization in Healthcare provided for by article 92 of the 2022 Budget Law excluded this Irccs-Izs research staff and from the first documents of the National Health Research Program, “there is no trace of a solution to the historical precariousness of public health research” , they remark.
The Arsi “asks for immediate action so that the organic resources of the Research are included in the Pnrs and the permanent stabilization of the historical research staff is immediately carried out, putting an end to the current precariousness, which is in sharp contrast with the European Directive 1999 / 70 on the use of forward contracts “.