I know it’s very “people’s front of Judea” as explanations go, but perhaps Mr Scicluna’s involvement accelerated an inevitable next step rather than made it happen.

You are being very unfair. In the past few years, various Maltese scientists have made to the fore of international, high impact journals. Just to mention two – Alex Felice and all his team have made it to the front page of Nature Genetics and their breakthrough was the main topic of discussion during a whole day meeting in the UK.

Same for Joseph Grima and his chemistry team – inventing novel compounds with useful characteristics some of which might find their way into cardiac stent.

Or the engineer Jonathan Borg’s team and their work on inventing a new prototype for the endoscope head that should reduce the time for endoscopy by at least 30%. These last two funded by MCST.

Another success story is David Zammit Mangion’s work in avionics – again breakthrough’s in making flight especially take offs safer.

And these are the one’s that I remember; I am sure that there are others in physics, IT, Bioengineering etc.

And yes, most of it not through EU funding – there are problems for small universities like ours, but through sheer hard work, MCST and university funds as well as industry here in Malta.

So please refrain from belittling the hard work of Maltese scientists who labour under very unfavourable conditions and still produce very good and excellent scientific work.

Julia Farrugia should do us all a favour and look into her Daddy’s cupboard; perhaps she’ll find a skeleton two from his dark past.

Oops, you’re right, he’s the CEO of MCST. Actually, this confirms my objection even further. Scientific and technological research in Malta has not improved at all. They have hardly touched the plethora of EU research grants (which ironically is probably what funds most Maltese researchers working in European institutions). Apart from a few photo ops with ESA and the occasional exchange student visiting CERN very little has been achieved.

I think Juanito’s appointment was not as political considering the drive at the time to push the I.T sector forward. Juanito had a PhD in computer science from a good university but he had also been a successful CEO for several years so he was no novice to administration. He made sense as a candidate for rector and he has delivered.

On the other hand, it is not clear why Nicholas Sammut was the best candidate for MCST. In most countries at that age and with so little experience he wouldn’t even be considered for a senior lecturing position or to lead in a research team let alone be entrusted with an entire country’s science and technology research policy. Surely there must have been a more qualified candidate.

Sammut worked – perhaps he still does – at CERN, for crying out loud. It’s the hippest (in “hard science” circles) thing to work on at the moment. Anyone who didn’t give him a “high visibility” job would have been out of his tiny mind.

At 27 he would be unproven both as an academic (at 27 most of us would be in a postdoc position, looking towards a full-time academic position or perhaps industry) and as an administrator. This is in sharp contrast with, say, Juanito Camilleri who was both an accomplished academic and a veteran administrator.

Of course, the point of your article is to criticise JPO’s role and I can’t really comment on that, since it’s not clear who does what in the MCAST administration.

[Daphne – It’s not MCAST; that’s the college. This is the MCST. I can’t see why you categorise Juanito Camilleri’s appointment differently.]

Julia Farrugia is trying to make Franco angry against a (too) loyal activist, so that on the 9th May Franco will vote against a money bill in parliament.

How desperate are they? Would anyone in his right senses believe that anyone would launch his candidacy in a Band Club where politics are a NO-NO?

Is this what Saviour calls investigative journalism?

He must be pushing 33 if he’s a day.

[Daphne – 30 or 31. He was 27 under four years ago.]