According to a ruling published in January 2026 by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court, Carla Rossi, scientific director of the Centro Scaligero degli Studi Danteschi in Verona, Italy, must repay research funding due to significant plagiarism identified in her texts. Under the decision, Rossi is also barred from applying for grants from the foundation for five years.

According to the court ruling, the Swiss funding body revoked the funding in 2024 and ordered Rossi to repay grants awarded for three books (approximately $51,000 USD) after identifying a pattern of plagiarism and a lack of transparency during the grant application process. Rossi sued the foundation over these findings, arguing that it had reviewed the wrong versions of her books and suggesting that other versions circulating online had been altered or manipulated by third parties.

However, the judges stated that the versions available through Rossi’s own publishing house were “current and accurate” at the time, and that Wayback Machine records “clearly show that the publications existed prior to the applicant’s publications” and had not been altered afterward.

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