(Finance) – Health, expressed according to the different areas of expertise of the biologist, also recognized as a healthcare professional. This is the theme at the center of the III National Enpab Congress, the National Welfare and Assistance Agency for Biologists, “Welfare is health. The future in our hands”, a two-day event – which started today in Rome – aimed at telling the story, work and welfare of biologists, enhancing the commitment of this professional figure in the protection of life in all its forms. To open the day a message from the Holy Father focused on the importance of the role of biologists in society, hoping that, through the progress of biology, significant developments in human care will be promoted. The Holy Father recalled that the task of those who dedicate themselves to this area “is not only to promote the harmonious and integrated development of scientific and technological research which concerns the biological processes of plant, animal and human life but also to predict and prevent the negative consequences that a distorted use of knowledge and abilities to manipulate life can cause”.
The subsidiary role of social security funds
The social security institution has doubled its action: on the one hand it has continued to expand the forms of assistance that support the professional in times of need and, on the other, it has activated increasingly structured active welfare initiatives. Over the years there have been numerous technical interventions to strengthen social security benefits: the mandatory subjective contribution rate has gone from the original 10%, set by law, to the 15% desired with an amendment to the Regulation. Likewise, the modular or optional one previously set at a maximum of 20% is now at 36%. The supplementary contribution paid by the customer has been increased from 2 to 4%, allocating the entire surplus to increase the value of the amount. Enpab obtained, not without difficulty, the recognition of the extension of the supplement to the extent of 4% also for the Public Administrations to guarantee fairness. In this sense, some numbers demonstrate the success of this policy: the percentage of biologists who chose a rate higher than 15% in 2023 doubled compared to 2022, reaching over 10% of the total members. To date, Enpab has gone from 7% to 64% of female directors and is administered by both young professionals and silver workers, finally reflecting the composition of the membership audience.
The biologists’ numbers
The biologist represents an important professional figure of reference in the ecological transition of our economy. Starting from nutritional biologists who, with their work, can educate on seasonality, recovery and planning for the benefit of the fight against waste of resources and to raise citizens’ awareness of a correct lifestyle. But there are many other variations for the professional figure of the biologist in this specific sector, such as the analysis of the quality of air, water, noise pollution, soil monitoring and reclamation, waste management. In total, the number of biologists in Italy is equal to 18,138, of which, in order of number of members, the top regions include: 2,820 (15.5%) in Campania; 2,467 (13.6%) in Lazio; 2,232 (12.3%) in Sicily; 1,915 (10.6%) in Lombardy; 1,459 (8%) in Puglia.
Project “Biologists in schools”
During the Congress, the new edition of the project “Let’s build health! Biologists in schools”, promoted by Enpab, in collaboration with the Joint Committee of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Merit, was presented. In the 2024/2025 school year, 100 Enpab biologists will be able to make their professionalism available with the aim of developing, increasing and disseminating “food culture and awareness with consistent respect for the environment” to students and their families. The Project, aimed solely at students attending the third year of primary school, will be organized in frontal educational meetings with the students. There are over 80 schools involved throughout the national territory. The initiative follows Enpab’s “School Project”, which ran from 2014 to 2020, when it was interrupted due to the pandemic. Over the years, the project has involved a total of 1,000 professional biologists, with specializations in food and environmental matters, who have held experimental meetings and laboratories on health and environmental education within approximately 500 schools, also through pedagogical use of drawing and play.
“To offer increasingly targeted and effective support, the social security funds – he declared Lorenzo Fontana, president of the Chamber of Deputies – are adopting new approaches that include prevention services, assistance and promotion of the well-being of those assisted. Enpab’s activity, in fact, does not only consist in the provision of services to biologists who practice the profession, but also translates into a constant effort to expand the forms of protection guaranteed to its clients. The essential role played by biologists, health professionals, recognized as such at a legislative level, in possession of specific skills relating to a very broad spectrum of disciplines, is clearly evident. To face and overcome the health challenges that await us, synergistic cooperation between different professional figures is needed, all actively engaged in safeguarding human health”.
For the Honourable Antonio Tajani, Vice President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs “biologists are a young professional category made up mainly of women”. The Government’s objective – he added – is to “foster sustainable economic growth that puts the person at the centre. The aging of the population, in fact, will have an increasingly important impact on our public pension system, with the risk therefore today’s young workers could benefit from inadequate pension benefits when they retire. The awareness that there is a principle of necessary dependence between professional income, social security contributions and pension benefits has made all social security funds, including Enpab. , increasingly protagonists in active welfare policies, with investments aimed at a real employment opportunity and the achievement of scholarships and practical internships aimed at specific training that facilitates the introduction of biologists into the various professional fields”.
“I am convinced that the school, within its educational space, – stated the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara – must have the objective of providing students with the skills and tools necessary to face the challenges of tomorrow, helping to imagine the professions of the future. In this sense, the ‘Biologists in schools’ project, promoted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Merit, is inspired by the need to promote culture and environmental and food awareness, also in light of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, with a systemic approach to involve schools as protagonists. In this sense, it will be a place in which to carry out a path aimed at food education and sustainability, becoming an observatory and laboratory to increase the culture of interrelationships between man and our planet”.
“The biologists – underlined the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin – have a great responsibility in promoting health, protecting the environment and sustainable development. In fact, the health of the population can only be preserved by maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and in this context biologists are of irreplaceable importance. Their role and their professionalism by virtue of their technical-scientific skills are fundamental to providing answers to the challenges of our time. We need a One Health approach, capable of promoting multidisciplinary research aimed at improving the health and well-being of all species. It is now clear that our societies and economies are rooted in nature and that damaging the environment also has negative social and economic consequences. My hope is that together we will be able to find and implement the best solutions, the best practices to repair what was damaged by man yesterday to build a model of sustainable development and to create the best conditions for the future of the next generations”.
“Making social security and pension coincide is a short-sighted vision. Pension – he said Tiziana Stallone, Enpab president – it is not a simple mathematical calculation, but something that is built from a young age. However, we at Enpab do not feel fully satisfied by the fact that the legislator wanted a pure contributory system for our pension fund. We believe, in fact, that those savings can be enhanced and grow exponentially, thanks to the important role played by biologists in our society. In this sense, our objective is to do even more for each member, social security must be perceived as a tool for protecting and enhancing the precious work carried out by professional biologists for the benefit of the entire community”.
“Biologists are fundamental, also through the operational arm of the Ministry such as the Higher Institute of Environmental Protection and Research, whose area of biology – he stated Vannia Gava, deputy minister of the Environment and Energy Security – manages the laboratories and coordinates activities with the laboratories of the national environmental protection system, in the field of research and monitoring. To strengthen skills and also ensure the contribution of professionals in the formation of international negotiating positions, the Government has established a fund for the valorisation of the research activity of Ispra and Enea of 2 and a half million per year within the decree PA law from last summer. I renew the commitment of the Government and the Ministry to the valorisation of the country’s natural capital, which is among the greatest possessors of biological diversity, through actions that can combat climate change”.
“In light of the phase of profound changes we are experiencing – he said Claudio Durigon, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies – it is essential to make young people understand the importance of building their own pension. In this sense the vision must be long-term. With the Dini law of ’96, the contributory calculation system was adopted. In this context it is necessary to give strength to the second pillar to renew our pension system. Young people must think that they are a fundamental element in building their own future in which they must invest starting today.”
“Today more than ever the role of biologists – stated Francesco Battistoni, vice president of the Environment, Territory and Public Works Commission of the Chamber of Deputies – assumes centrality for the development and protection of the health of individuals and the ecosystems in which we all live. New technologies applied to agriculture or the environment, I am thinking of TEA in agriculture, Artificial Intelligence, precision agriculture, sustainable and technological development processes applied to the human sciences, are the fields of investigation in which it is required a constant commitment. And in this context, biologists have the task of helping us progress as citizens and as a society, and it is a commitment that they carry out with absolute determination and to which we must all be grateful.”
“Pensions are a very current issue. Biologists,” he declared Sergio Marchi, head of the Secretariat of the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, delegated by Minister Francesco Lollobrigida – recognized as healthcare professionals, they have a fundamental role in protecting health and good and correct nutrition, essential aspects for living well and longer. We must do our part above all by promoting the Italian lifestyle, unique in the world. A heritage that must be defended as a central asset for the country.”