The 87 universities of Spain opened their eyes wide when, in July 2020, the Council of the European Union approved an allocation for Spain of 72,000 million euros of Next Generation EU funds until 2026, making it the second country to receive subsidies after Italy. For this reason, before the Government sent its Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan to Brussels, the rectors presented the then Minister of Universities, Manuel Castells, with some general lines of action in which investment would be needed. Of course, as the calls come out, each university will present itself to them with their particular requests.
The campuses want more, because the express allocation for campus digitization and teacher training ―530 million― is not enough for them. Thus, in the report Recovery and resilience plan. University involvement, the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) details where the bulk of the investments will go ―housing rehabilitation, modernization of administrations and digitization of SMEs― and points out in which niches universities can fish for funds: they are considered “directly related” to the digital training of citizens and modernization of the education system (7,300 million) and with the reinforcement of the National Health System by promoting R&D activities (4,936 million). A lower step, as “partially related” actions, they place the modernization of the Administration, the fight against depopulation and digital initiatives related to culture; and as “indirectly related” they position the ecological recovery, the care of dependents and the modernization of the business fabric. “It is a guide to go through the methodological jungle”, says Salustiano Mato, deputy vice-president of the CRUE and coordinator of the work, ironically.
Universities defend ―and Brussels argues this way― that they must be a fundamental actor in economic and social transformation, because they combine knowledge ―the response of science to the pandemic has become its incontestable guarantee―, they have the capacity to train to the new generations, undertake through the spin off (spin-off companies) and start-up (emerging companies). And they are a bridge for transferring innovation to companies; although this is its great Achilles heel, since many of the scientific publications have no impact on society.
The 2030 Agenda
There are two types of calls with Next Generation funds from the EU: the usual ones for research with a larger amount and others from the different ministries and autonomous communities around the sustainability objectives of the 2030 Agenda. Ana Caro, coordinator of the programs at the Autonomous University of Madrid, explains that they have presented three projects: they want to make their campus founded 52 years ago more ecological; establish a relationship with ranchers and merchants in the area to promote local products, and a third party to weave what they have called “violet nodes”, a mentorship to learn to differentiate sexist violence.
The 2020 report of the Knowledge and Development Foundation (CYD) it vindicates the role of universities and recommends promoting OTRIs (research results transfer offices) and consortiums between universities, research centers and administrations with their own legal personality.
Although in recent years a lot has been invested in technology parks – albeit less than expected in campuses of excellence – the rectors are committed to channeling these funds in many cases through small but imaginative emerging or derived from universities . They believe that they would be more profitable “because of their greater dynamism and their ability to single out the products and services they offer in emerging markets.”
The CYD Foundation recalls in its report that in order to face the challenges of the universities they need “greater funding and greater autonomy, as well as an incentive system to guide university activity”. Between 2008 and 2020, the amount allocated to them fell by 20.1%, according to data from the EUA Public Funding Observatory, the financing observatory of European universities. For this reason, the rectors claimed last year 150 million from the General State Budget to “strengthen the university system” through their ministry to face new challenges. They did not succeed and this year they intend to insist, but they will negotiate with the Minister of Science, Diana Morant, who does have funds to distribute. This return to square one highlights the enormous management problems that campus powers are spread over two ministries, although those responsible say they meet at least once a week (they share space in the same building).
Only 10% of the permanent university teaching staff is PI (Principal Investigator) of projects financed in public competition and the rectors believe that the challenges of the recovery plan can be a great incentive. In the study delivered to the ministry, they recognize that “the most innovative and dynamic ecosystems worldwide have strong ties with the most prestigious universities” and that in Spain “this potential is not fully exploited and it is necessary to establish a transformation agenda”.
No one stop shop
But setting the agenda is complicated. The four polytechnics – Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Cartagena (Murcia) – unsuccessfully proposed to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism to channel part of the funds distributed. In a common article in EL PAÍS, its rectors recounted their failed plans last March: they wanted to “create a network of laboratories, teams, professionals, students and R&D&I departments that connect the university with SMEs”. For Mato, who was rector of the University of Vigo, it is a problem of “culture, what is done in other spheres is not made visible.” In Spain there is no single window, as in the centralist France ―the funds are managed by the State, the autonomous communities and local entities― and in each one they are used to speaking with the usual interlocutors. Mato believes that his presence in all the provinces is in favor of the universities, “because any initiative has to permeate the entire territory, be transversal.” And he insists: “The projects have to have a continuity solution later, when the reimbursable loans arrive.” Spain may request up to 80,000 million in credits.
In 10 years, Pedro Merino, director of the Institute of Technology and Software Engineering (ITIS) of the University of Malaga, will work. Normally, a fifth of the 100 researchers and technicians (50 doctors) of the center usually work on 5G issues, but now they are all going to join forces to carry out tactile internet projects ―to speed up activities such as moving a robot in an operating room or a car without a driver― or in good remote interactions for the internet of emotions (metaverse) in 6G. ITIS will receive four million to spend over three years, but it knows that it will then apply for funds from the Horizon Europe research framework program that ends in 2027 together with other EU partners. “This way of chaining activity allows us to maintain staff, international contacts and equipment,” Merino underlines. Now they are immersed in the selection of 10 Spanish companies that join the project.
Although the digital and green transformations are the great pillars of the funds, the Spanish language has also become one of the great axes. That is why the economic vice president Nadia Calviño has just visited the University of Salamanca, which will try to attract games to apply artificial intelligence in the teaching of Spanish, to create the Virtual Pan-Hispanic Campus of Spanish or to certify the learning of the language as a foreign language for United States teenagers. And Salamanca wants to involve the city’s network of Spanish academies in the project, with new educational approaches. In parallel, the Government of La Rioja intends to promote the Valle de la Lengua in the valley of the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, with a campus for learning Spanish and a digital museum on this language. Nobody wants to be left behind.
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