Frustration, bitterness and helplessness have gripped hundreds of artificial intelligence (AI) researchers this New Year’s Eve as they see how an unparalleled project financed with European funds has declined without any explanation other than “unforeseen circumstances.” On December 30, one year after the final resolution of the call should have been published, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities announced that it would finally not execute the 31 million euros allocated to the item called “Financing of cooperative research in the area of artificial intelligence developed by interdisciplinary research groups 2023.”
It all started in July of that year, when the now defunct Ministry of Universities published the call. According to the researchers, it was a possibility without equal in Spain: they would have to create groups in which professionals from different study centers in the country participated to qualify for funding of up to two million euros per project, a budget that opened the possibility to develop research like never before. In September, the applicants presented the proposals, which should have been evaluated and resolved in December 2023, since the projects would have to be developed between 2024 and 2025. None of that happened or will happen.
Alfonso Tarancón, professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Zaragoza (Unizar), was one of the people who worked during August 2023 to qualify for one of the grants: “We are stunned. We spent an entire August working because the opportunity deserved it, and now they cancel the call. “I am very indignant because all the work has gone overboard,” he says. He, who has four decades of experience in the world of research, claims to have not seen anything similar in his entire career.
The applicants, without rights as they are not beneficiaries
The final resolution, signed on December 27, 2024 by the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Universities, Juan Cruz Cigudosa, leaves no room for doubt. Those interested had access to it three days later. The document states that “in the development of the administrative procedure for its resolution, a series of unexpected circumstances have arisen that have finally resulted in the technical impossibility of resolving this call.” And he adds: “As there is no proposal for a provisional or definitive resolution, nor any notification, there is no right in favor of the applicants, who have not acquired the status of beneficiaries.”
Cigudosa himself has also sent a communication that several of the applicants have already received in which he explains that to these “unforeseen circumstances” there has been added “the need to prioritize the management of standards and aid programs for the reconstruction of infrastructure and communications.” and resources of various kinds to the territories affected by dana.”
The Ministry of Science has responded to elDiario.es confirming the content of the resolution and the letter from the Secretary of State, although it has not specified what those 31 million euros may be used for.
Hundreds of researchers affected
Both Tarancón and the other researchers consulted consider that “the ineptitude shown by the Ministry is so great that it is impossible to know the real reason why they dropped this very ambitious call.” The Unizar teacher initially thought that it could be a problem of competence or neglect, in his own words, although now he opts to think that “there may be something more hidden here, like they want to allocate these funds to another sector.” ”.
Only in Tarancón’s group, in which he appeared as the main researcher, there were 16 people, including from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), the Cantabria Institute of Physics, the University of Granada and the foundation and study center Ibercivis. These are engineers, physicists, sociologists, statesmen, educators and psychologists. “We are facing a wall that we can barely fight against. The misunderstanding we suffer, the neglect and the lack of interest are total,” Tarancón emphasizes.
German Rigau, deputy director of the Basque Research Center for Language Technologies of the University of the Basque Country (UPV), is another of the main researchers who had presented himself after coordinating with eight other academic centers throughout Spain, including linguists, librarians , computer scientists and historians. This expert emphasizes that they know that the projects were evaluated in April 2024. “If we accept what they say about the dana as valid, what has the Ministry done from April until almost November?” he asks.
Stopping the research career on AI in Spain
The call was aligned with the European Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, as well as with the European Digital Strategy and the Digital Spain 2026 Agenda, and also the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, included in component 16 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan Spanish (PRTR). “It is really worrying that, in such an arbitrary way, due to the incompetence of a Ministry, we are left without advancing in the investigative career. Because of this, Spain will be left far behind when it comes to AI,” says Rigau, who affirms that he had not suffered anything similar in his work experience either.
This language specialist highlights what Cigudosa stated in his letter. The Secretary of State confirms that “in the shortest possible time, a new call will be drawn up in 2025, which on this occasion will be managed by the State Research Agency and which will respond to the scientific objectives that inspired the initial call, with a financial allocation that will include own funds not linked to the PRTR and a design that facilitates and ensures its execution.”
On the other hand, the UPV researcher is not satisfied with this, and argues as follows: “This was an extraordinary opportunity. Never before have we been able to qualify for 2 million euros to be distributed among so many researchers for interdisciplinary projects over two years. What the Ministry does will not even be similar because they usually finance up to 150,000 euros for three years.”
Lost opportunity for precarious researchers
The feeling of resignation has also become strong among those affected, who think that in the end if the 31 million euros are not executed it will be “a collective failure, but also to a large extent that of Diana Morant,” as Rigau summarizes. He already has a consolidated position in the academy, but many other postdoctoral researchers were trying to consolidate it, not an easy milestone as the research career in Spain is planned.
“For them this is an incredible blow. Many were principal investigators; they had worked on proposals of up to 80 pages in which they carefully discussed their objectives and the budget they would need. The salary does not matter to us in this, but we are talking about hundreds of postdocs being left without being hired due to the incompetence of the Ministry,” Rigau himself reiterates.
Legal uncertainty for the future
At the moment, those affected are trying to organize to fight against what they consider an outrage, even in the courts. The resolution itself by which the call is canceled states that they can still file an appeal for reconsideration in one month or go to the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the National Court within a period of two months. Faced with this extreme, Tarancón points out that appealing to the judicial level would be starting a process that would last several years: “We can win against the Administration, but for what? That money will already be lost. Research has to be at the forefront of the areas and needs of each moment.”
Rigau, for his part, believes that “the claims are not going to amount to anything.” Furthermore, he highlights that the Administration itself has covered its back well. Both in the resolution canceling the call and in the letter sent by Cigudosa, the Secretary of State, it is stated that, as there has been no proposal for a provisional or definitive resolution at any time, no applicant has acquired the status of beneficiary. , nor have the rights associated with this recognition been generated.
“The situation leaves us with tremendous legal uncertainty. From now on, do we apply for more projects knowing that they can be canceled arbitrarily? Is no one going to take responsibility for having lost 31 million euros of European funds that Spain only had to distribute? “This is not about unforeseen causes as they say, but about political decisions that never take science into account,” concludes the UPV researcher.
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