The Government unveils its legal reform against job insecurity in science

The Ministry of Science has published the reform of the science law with which it intends to improve the employment situation of young researchers and eliminate the bureaucratic obstacles that have been hindering the work of scientists for years to the point of not being able to buy even chairs.

"Between 2011 and 2016, more than 5,000 research positions were lost and a large number of people were forced to establish their careers outside of Spain," reads the preamble to the reform, which has just been published. Until January 26 there will be a deadline for the groups of the Spanish science system to know the draft and include modifications. Subsequently, the text will be approved by the Council of Ministries and its parliamentary process will begin.

This reform is the great project of the Science Minister, Diana Morant, who inherited it from her predecessor in office, Pedro Duque. This year Morant will handle a "historic" budget of 3,843 million euros thanks to extraordinary funds from the EU. Its three main objectives, as announced at its inauguration, will be to create opportunities, retain talent and restore hope to the scientific community, punished by insufficient funding and inefficient bureaucratic machinery that has led many researchers to emigrate.

The primary objective of the reform is to improve the working conditions of younger scientists. The rule creates an "indefinite contract" to "reduce precariousness." Until now, many scientists and technical personnel have been chaining temporary contracts for years and even more than a decade, when they already exceeded 30 and 40 years. This new indefinite contract "is not subject to a replacement fee and does not require prior authorization and can benefit thousands of researchers who are currently on temporary contracts at universities, research centers and foundations and consortiums," according to sources from the Ministry of Research. Science.

The reform creates a new contract for access to the public R&D&i system. It will last between three and six years and will be applied in public universities and organizations, foundations and consortiums of the public sector. The beneficiaries will have the right to compensation, something that was not given before, and they will have to pass an intermediate evaluation to achieve stabilization. Likewise, the regulation provides that contracted predoctoral researchers have the right to compensation when their contract expires. The text also defines the new career for technical staff and reformulates the figure of "distinguished researcher" to try to attract great brains to Spain, something already provided for in the 2011 law.

The modification of the norm also tries to alleviate the enormous bureaucratic obstacles that still afflict some research centers, to the paradoxical limit that they cannot spend the funds they obtain and must return them. From the approval of the reform "the justification of subsidies in general will be carried out in the form of a simplified supporting account and the verification will be by sampling without the verification of all the aid or subsidies granted being precise", according to the ministry. There are also more facilities for transferring Spain's quota to international organizations and programmes. These will not have to have the approval of the Treasury or the approval of the Council of Ministers when they do not exceed 50,000 euros.

The new law will also emphasize the transfer of knowledge and will try to enhance the contribution of the private sector to investment in research.

The text, for example, recognizes the time spent by researchers in technology transfer projects known as "transfer six-year terms."

It also makes it possible for public institutions to invest in knowledge transfer by imitating success stories such as venture capital companies linked to universities, according to the ministry.

Another axis of the reform is gender equality, a field in which articles for "effective equality" are included for the first time.

Among them will be to guarantee "a balanced gender composition, 40% minimum, in evaluation committees and award juries," the text states.

The Government has taken advantage of the reform to create the Spanish Space Agency, which will report to the Ministry of Science. "The creation of the agency will be carried out without an increase in public spending." The objective of the agency will be the "promotion, execution and development of research, technological development and innovation in the field of space, state and international coordination of Spanish space policy". The Executive undertakes to create a statute for the agency within a maximum period of one year. This is a controversial point, since Pedro Duque was against its creation in March 2021, although in 2015, years before becoming minister, he defended it.

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