The scientific community has received with the same dose of hope and suspicion the surprising announcement to EL PAÍS by the Minister of Science, Diana Morant, of shielding by law a stable and constant increase in funds for public research. This is a measure longed for by a sector weighed down by precariousness, lack of funds and paralyzing bureaucracy. Morant wants the new Science Law – the draft is expected to be approved today in the extraordinary Council of Ministers – to include the commitment that public science increases its budget every year until in 2030 it reaches 1.25% of GDP – it is currently in 0.58%—in the hope that the private sector will also increase its contribution to the total level recommended by the EU, which amounts to 3% of GDP. The problem is that it is not known how the plan will be carried out.
The text of the preliminary draft, to which this newspaper has had access, thus includes the objective in its sixth additional provision of “multi-year budget framework”: “The preparation of the budgets of the public agents of the Spanish system of science, technology and innovation is It will fit into a medium-term budget framework, compatible with the principle of annuality that governs the approval and execution of budgets, with the aim that public funding for R&D&i, in accordance with European regulations, increase regularly so that it reaches 1.25% of GDP in 2030″. The text adds that “this increase will be conditioned in any case by the budget available for each year.” After the approval of the draft today, the norm will begin its parliamentary process, in which the Minister of Science, Diana Morant, seeks majority support from the parties.
Perla Wahnón, president of the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE), which brings together 84 of these associations and 44,000 researchers, points out: “It is a measure that we love, but we need to know how this budget increase is going to materialize” .
According to the analysis of the science budgets for 2022 that this organization has carried out, the budget increase described by Diana Morant is not as spectacular as it seems. Total spending on research, development, innovation and digitization —the so-called spending policy 46— amounts to 13,300 million euros, which is 7.62% more than in 2021. But if the funds of the plan are subtracted from that amount recovery of the European Union the increase is only 3.77%, according to COSCE. “Of all these funds, more than half are financial, loans of which more than three quarters are usually left unspent,” Wahnón warns. “The minister should say whether the budget increase that she wants to protect by law is based on these funds or with subsidies,” highlights this quantum physicist, a specialist in the study of new materials for high-efficiency solar panels.
The great soccer teams in Spain can sign the best players in the world, but the public sector cannot attract Nobel Prize winners
Perla Wahnón, president of Cosce
Wahnón also believes that the reform of the science law “should be more ambitious.” One of the most controversial aspects is the return of Spanish scientists who have emigrated and also the recruitment of scientists from other highly competitive countries, says the COSCE president. “We continue to have a very serious problem in attracting these scientists because it is almost impossible for our scientific system to validate their curriculum and their experience abroad. We have made an analysis of all the laws that would have to be changed to do so and there are at least ten. These public sector contracting rules do not take into account the exceptional nature of scientific activity. The result is that the great soccer teams in Spain can sign the best players in the world, but the public sector cannot attract Nobel Prize winners”, she cries.
The scientific community is expectant with the new figure of the distinguished researcher, a special contract created by the science law in 2011 that was not carried out correctly and that has not served its objective: that Spain could bring top researchers.
From the business sector the measure also sounds very good. “It is a legitimate objective; everything that involves consolidating budget increases as a result of European funds is good”, says Jorge Barrero, general director of the Cotec Foundation for innovation. “In any case, linking the rise to GDP has its risks. For example, in the last year the amount dedicated to R+D+i has increased, but up to half of this increase is only due to the fact that the GDP has fallen. If this happens again, we will get closer to the objective in an artificial way, because the real increase will not be as high and if it grows, it will be more difficult to reach it, ”he adds.
A controversial issue in the new law is the recognition of the merits and salary of Spanish researchers abroad who want to return to Spain. At the moment the law has not heeded their pleas, so that a scientist who has spent years or decades working in the most prestigious universities or research centers in the world will have less recognition and salary than those who never left. “This measure penalizes all those who have followed the itinerary set by the State, because to be considered a competitive scientist you had to spend several years of research abroad,” warns Elisa Fernández, spokesperson for the CC OO union in the Superior Council of Scientific Research (CSIC). “We have been denouncing this measure for months because it promotes inbreeding by valuing more those who have stayed,” she highlights. Fernández raises another concern to the Ministry of Science: “Increasing public funding based on GDP sounds great, but what will happen if this or another government does not comply, will there be a penalty?”
Just as critical is the network of Spanish researchers abroad Raicex, with 4,000 associates. “It is unacceptable that there are no equal conditions between researchers who have worked abroad and those who have done so in the Spanish public sector,” says Francisco Vilaplana, associate professor at the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology and secretary of this collective. “We know that the Ministry of Science is trying to solve this problem and we hope that the final version of the law will correct it,” he adds.
The Federation of Young Researchers has enthusiastically received the new proposals included in the bill. “This reform has many lights and if it is accompanied by an increase in research budgets, it is even more positive,” explains Vanesa Nozal, researcher of new drugs against Alzheimer’s and sclerosis at a CSIC center and president of the organization. She, however, stresses that the budget increase must be converted into money spent. The researcher also points to some shadow in the panorama of young scientists. “Right now there is a multiplicity of calls and contracts and in each one a different amount is charged. How is the Government going to explain that to the researchers who are thinking of returning to Spain? ”, She highlights.
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