BOLOGNA -- The effects of Brexit on Italy are already evident as numerous Italian researchers and professors working in the United Kingdom have made requests to “come home," La Repubblica newspaper reported on Friday.

 “Requests arrived one after another as soon as Brexit became a reality,” said Professor Giorgio Bellettini, the head of the economics department at the University of Bologna. “Numerous Italian professors and researchers from all different British universities wrote to ask about the possibility of coming home, which for some was an urgent need, as not only did they find themselves away from Italy and also out of the Europe as well.”

 Bellettini explained that the effect of Brexit came about suddenly, and that requests to return to Italy were made very soon after the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union.

 As La Repubblica states, doing research whilst being cut out of Europe could be “dangerous and penalising.” It’s for this reason that so many Italian academics want to return home to Italy and to Europe.

 For researchers and professors, working within the European Union means being funded by the European Union as well. Bellettini highlights the danger of funds being cut for Italian academics working in the United Kingdom, saying “after pulling away from the EU, will researchers continue to have the necessary funds to carry out their projects?”

 “They are afraid of having an uncertain future,” Bellettini said when talking about the reasons why so many Italian researchers and professors requested to return to Italy after Brexit.

 He added that “dozens of demands were made the day after the referendum,” and said that “this is an opportunity for us in Italy.”

 Filippo Taddei, Fellow Director of the Bologna Institute for Policy Research, also sees the “brain drain” as a potential opportunity for Italy, saying “it was a tear away which perhaps nobody really wanted, but for Italy it opens up possibilities which can’t be missed.”

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