Overview
- The Chamber of Deputies gave final approval to the reform this week, formally turning Minister Anna Maria Bernini’s bill into law after earlier passage in the Senate.
- The law ends the Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (ASN) and replaces it with an online self-certification system in which candidates declare they meet ministry-set productivity criteria.
- Competition panels will be drawn largely by lot from ministry lists and every candidate must pass a live teaching test alongside the public discussion of their research.
- A ministerial decree due within 90 days must define the specific publication, project and teaching thresholds for each discipline, and the law phases in changes while preserving existing habilitations until they expire.
- Unions, university groups and 144 scientific societies warn that shifting assessment to individual atenei risks bespoke, localised competitions and nepotism, while the law also mandates ANVUR reviews after three years and links some funding to performance.