Funding and the physics of matter

Abstract

One characteristic of physics in Italy is the very strong coordination between university groups all over the country; joint programmes are invariably discussed by all the groups in a particular discipline before they are presented to the appropriate funding bodies. This tradition has two roots – the “Fermi school” and centralised appointment of university staff – and led, in 1951, to the formation of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), widely regarded as Italy's most efficient funding body. The INFN is funded autonomously by the government and is responsible for all Italian research in nuclear and particle physics in the universities, national and international laboratories (see “INFN: an Italian role-model” on page 40). Subsequently other physics disciplines, such as the physics of matter, have sought to set up similar structures.