A group of CNIO scientists have published a letter, requesting the signature of the workers, to demand the dismissal of María Blasco as director of the center, whom they accuse of being incapable of obtaining competitive financing. The text is added to the letter that this same group already sent to the Government last December along the same lines.
“There is ineffective communication between the CNIO management and its employees in various areas. This includes a lack of clarity about executive salaries (e.g. potential bonuses for meeting targets), cuts in employee benefits (for example, the temporary removal of the social premises and its reduction), administrative silence and the absence of clear protocols for the allocation of scholarships funded by public money and donations (for example, the program Friends of the CNIO),” says this group on the Internet through a platform where they demand membership.
These scientists also denounce the lack of leadership. “We perceive a lack of institutional vision that has resulted in the deterioration of key structures at the CNIO. There is an inability to obtain competitive funding and a disconnection or misalignment between the scientific leadership team and staff. Furthermore, there is no limit of time established for the position of director,” they say.
Losses
The National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) is sinking into the red, as elEconomista.es reported on January 6. Since María Blasco took over as general director in June 2011, the organization has added losses year after year with an accumulated negative result that now exceeds 36.3 million euros. The center, which was created in 1998 by the Carlos III Health Institute – it is currently attached to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities – was directed from then until 2011 by Mariano Barbacid, doctor in Chemical Sciences and one of the Spanish researchers of greater international projection. Until his retirement, his situation was completely healthy, reaching a surplus of 2.55 million euros in 2009.
After Blasco’s arrival, however, the losses multiplied, going from a red number of 139,000 euros in 2010, just before his arrival, to a negative result of 1.9 million in 2011, after his appointment; 4.8 million the following year, in 2012 and almost 5 million euros in 2013. In 2023, the last year with published accounts, the losses rose to 2.39 million, which is eight times more than in 2022.
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