10 questions on research

The word "research" implies advancing knowledge towards ever new goals; it is impossible to confine research within national borders or to impose preventive moratoria. It must be given maximum freedom, which also means that the scientific community can have total control over data, methods, findings and ethical approach.

Prohibitions will only result in "grey areas" bordering on illegal, which are difficult to monitor and at constant risk from an ethical point of view.

The scientific method consists in the production and collection, based on assumptions or theories, of empirical data, and in their rigorous and rational (and, where possible, mathematical) analysis to acquire objective knowledge of facts, which can be verified and shared. Experiments must be controllable and repeatable and the experiment data and approach, as well as the scientist names must be public. The experiment, its findings and social impact become publicly known only after a "methodological check"  by the scientific community.

In science there is no principle of authority, it is the method that publicly determines the validity of what is done.

Article 9, paragraph 1, of the Constitution states that the Republic of Italy promotes the "development of culture and scientific and technical research".

The promotion of research, therefore, was included by the Constituents among the fundamental principles enshrined in the first 12 articles of the Charter.

Culture and research are values that go hand in hand and must always be promoted, ensuring their free development.

The ethics of the academy or the rule of law imply that public funding, coming from the taxes paid by citizens, is allocated to the best projects, in order to acquire new knowledge, skills and development opportunities, which will benefit the economy, health, the environment and society as a whole.

What is technically possible is not always morally acceptable. An intense debate has been underway in recent years on this and on the balance between freedom of research and other freedoms and rights (for instance, intellectual property, public safety and human dignity). When accepting or rejecting a scientific publication on an experiment, the scientific community "monitors" the ethics of a research project and its potential benefits. Therefore, it acts as a "first sentinel" for an audience which is often frightened by developments and progress it does not understand. It is essential to maintain a critical approach to the actual scientific nature of research projects and their findings. The ethics of a research project must be assessed, on different levels, by both the project scientists and the reviewers, while ethics committees play an important role of supervision.

A key step towards a shared vision of the relationship between science and ethics was taken in 2005 with the adoption of the European Charter for Researchers, which puts great emphasis on "research integrity".

Every area of our lives can be a research subject. To understand what surrounds us and to broaden and strengthen our knowledge, we need to identify documents and sources, reconstruct events or situations, study phenomena and processes, as well as being able to rely on certain and shared laws and rules. Any scientific enterprise requires discipline, publicity and controllability at every step of the process. There is no field of knowledge in which research, when so conducted, is not vital.

We speak of basic research to indicate experimental or theoretical activities that have as their objective the expansion of knowledge, regardless of any specific use of this knowledge.

Applied research is also aimed at expanding knowledge, but with the primary goal of applying its discoveries in a practical and specific way.

Research projects can take a very long time to be designed, funded, conducted and completed. It is a work that develops over several years. Similarly, the birth and development of a scientific community, the training of a new generation of researchers require very long times that are not consistent with short-term policies and programmes with a view to immediate results. The time factor is therefore essential in devising research policies that can prevent the marginalization and dispersion of the scientific community.

There are different types of research, and each one needs dedicated funding based on its objectives. The items of expenditure are different and variable. The first fundamental item of expenditure of a research project, whether in the field of science or the humanities, is research staff, which must include skilled resources with different levels of experience. In addition, scientific research requires "basic" laboratory products, such as gases, coolants, gloves, masks, shoe covers and gowns, alcohol, cell culture plates, pipettes to collect liquids. Reagents and antibodies are the highest cost, along with instruments (e.g.: spectrophotometers, cryostats, electron microscopes, flow cytometers and many others). Lastly, it is necessary to take into account the costs of publishing scientific articles in order to share and disseminate any discoveries. 

The cost is somewhat lower for research in the humanities field, which does not require significant expenses for equipment and consumables, so much as for researchers, trips to study the bibliographic material, possibly in faraway countries, or for international meetings or interviews.

In order to design a research project, you need to know exactly its timeframe and the resources available, which must be provided according to clear, open and competitive procedures, with rules designed to immediately identify any conflicts of interest, copied projects or others anomalies. You also need a long-term training project, for young researchers to learn a rigorous, unbiassed approach and the ethics of the scientific method from older colleagues. You need dedication, sharing, teamwork, respect for individuals, promoting personal and career growth. You need transparency in communicating scientific findings to both colleagues and the local community, as well as disseminating any negative findings. While often considered useless, these are important to discard wrong assumptions and start new research.

The peer review process, i.e. the review of research methods and findings by independent, third party experts, and quality assessment are also key.