"We are going to shield by law a stable financing of public science up to 1.25% of GDP"

Diana Morant, Minister of Science and Innovation, before the interview.samuel sánchez

Diana Morant assures that being Minister of Science and Innovation is "the great opportunity" of her life.

When President Pedro Sánchez called her to fill this position, seven months ago now, this 41-year-old telecommunications engineer was the mayor of Gandia — she has been a member of the PSOE since 2011 and is the general secretary of the Socialists in that town.

Morant manages a historic budget for science and innovation thanks to funds from the European Union, but she explains that she wants to go much further.

In this interview with EL PAÍS he anticipates that the Government will shield by law a continuous increase in public investment in research until Spain reaches the objectives recommended by the European Union in 2030, set at 1.25% of GDP —the current level is around 0.58%—.

The measure is a last-minute inclusion in the reform of the 2011 Science Law, whose draft is expected to be approved by the Council of Ministers this week.

According to the calculation of this newspaper, this increase would mean adding more than 7,000 million euros to current public spending.

The proposal represents a long-awaited national pact by scientists to which the Government hopes that the main political forces, including the opposition, will join.

The main objective of the new law is to put an end to job insecurity for researchers in Spain, to repopulate the public research system with 12,000 new scientists in three years and to recover part of the emigrated brains.

In this last aspect there is an important controversy.

With the current regulations, scientists abroad who want to return to Spain will do so with less recognition and salary than those who never left.

Morant announces in this interview an improvement in the law, although at the moment it does not cover scientists who have spent years or decades working outside of Spain.

However, Morant is committed to creating a future recovery and talent acquisition plan that will try to correct the current problems.

Ask.

How is the new law going to improve the lives of scientists who have been suffering for years from the endemic problems of research in Spain?

Answer.

This country has a historical debt with science and paying it off requires improving the opportunities and working conditions of scientists and innovators.

Part of the solution is the new law.

But there are other parallel measures that will contribute.

In the last two budgets, 2021 and 2022, approved by this Government, we have recognized the science sector as a priority in terms of replacement rate.

In other times, the rate was zero, which meant that for every 10 scientific retirements, no new position was replaced.

Now, for every ten pensions, 12 will be replaced. This allows us to feed the public system with civil servants who work for science.

This country owes a historical debt to science

Q.

How many scientists do you expect to recover?

R.

Until now, when a scientist retired, his position was amortized, it disappeared.

There are 5,000 such positions that have been lost.

That was the recipe for the way out of the crisis chosen by the Popular Party.

Here we come out of the crisis with a very clear cut to the public system in general and to the science system in particular.

We calculate that in 10 years 25,000 researchers will retire.

In just three years, with the new replacement rate plus stable contracts, we are going to replace 12,000 researchers in three years.

P.

Is there not going to be a temporary contract in science?

R.

The labor reform says so.

We had already foreseen in the Law of Science that the contract for work and service would disappear.

Research in our country is done mostly through external funds that are won by competitive bidding.

They are national or international funds with which the researchers were hired.

The contracts associated with projects usually last four years and every four years the research groups were destroyed.

The scientists were up in the air and had to find a new project to work on.

This disappears with the labor reform.

And with the Law of Science we introduce a specific indefinite contract that does not consume a replacement fee.

P.

In the universities it is estimated that there are about 25,000 researchers who would have to become permanent now, and the universities are not sure how to pay for all that.

How will this problem be solved?

R.

We have spoken with universities and research centers.

They know we know this

.

Until the Science Law arrives and is approved, what we are going to do is put the conditions of this contract into practice.

It's a matter of days.

The term is until March 31, but we will have the solution before.

P.

Spanish scientists abroad complain that with the current norm, if they return they will do so with less recognition and salary than those who never left, with which they understand that the inbreeding of research centers is aggravated. can you tell this group?

R.

One of our fundamental objectives is to recover talent and attract new researchers, not only those who left but those who are looking for new opportunities in our country.

For this we have to fix a failed system.

Regarding the five-year periods, the text of the law has been improved and already includes some of the contributions that the groups and unions sent us.

In our country there were borders not only with foreign countries but within Spain.

What we do is that the five-year period will recognize research experience throughout the Spanish public sector.

It is no longer exclusively in the Public Research Organizations, but the experience acquired in a university or in a foundation is also valid.

Five-year periods are one of the measures that recognize the activity of researchers.

There are also six-year terms in which all experience is recognized.

In the new law we add a new administration of knowledge transfer.

Regarding the return of talent, we are preparing a specific plan to recover and attract it.

There are measures already included in other laws such as that of startups, reductions in the contribution of people who live abroad and come to work in Spain.

Another improvement: the R3 certificate, which makes it easier for you to have a permanent place in the public science system, will also be able to accredit people who are currently abroad.

These merits abroad will serve to accredit you and be able to obtain a place.

We have also redefined the distinguished researcher contract.

In short: we know that there are many people who felt expelled from Spain who want to return.

The Ministry of Science will assume the compensation of indefinite contracts, which will be around 12 million euros

Q.

How much do you estimate it will cost to get all the new contracts up and running and pay the related severance pay?

R.

The indefinite contract does not cost anything.

The absurd thing was to put an expiration date on it when the line of research did not have it.

The contracts of the law of science are guaranteed.

The problem was the contracts already signed, which were in the name of a university or another actor in the system.

As compensation is not provided, it could cause a budget problem.

We recognize the right, including that of contracts in force, and from the Ministry we will assume those compensations that the autonomous communities and universities did not have foreseen when those contracts were formalized.

The final figure could be around 12 million euros.

It will be the Ministry that assumes it.

Diana Morant, Minister of Science and Innovation.samuel sánchez

P.

Regarding bureaucratic obstacles, can you assure that scientists will no longer have problems buying chairs, computers or spending the money they already have?

R.

Sometimes a researcher had to justify the expenses of a project ten years after having carried it out.

They could ask him for a taxi ticket for the day he had to go to Brussels to do a certain activity included in his line of investigation.

That's not going to happen anymore.

The justification will be for a simplified account.

In addition, the State Research Agency (AEI) will verify the justifications by sampling.

We are going to greatly simplify the administrative load and the times so that supporting documents are not requested after a decade.

There is another measure just as important.

A direct grant will be awarded to all projects that have previously been evaluated by the public system.

Imagine that a line of research has been positively evaluated but has not received funding.

In this way, an autonomous community, for example, will be able to use that evaluation to grant a direct subsidy to that line.

There is also a mandate in the law so that in this new stage things in the AEI are done differently.

The new director knows that this agency has to be the fundamental tool, a toned muscle and not rusty.

Now when one received a letter from this organization he felt that he was the collector of the tailcoat, instead of being good news.

I have spoken with the parliamentary groups and I hope that they join the clamor of the citizens for us to support science

P.

The law is now going to its parliamentary debate. How much support do you expect it to have?

R.

This is not the law of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, not even that of the Government, it is the law that the scientific system needed.

This text is the contribution of all those who have committed to improving it.

I ask the groups to support this law that scientists need.

I have spoken with the groups and I hope that they join the clamor of the citizens so that we support science.

In this sense, I am going to announce that the law is going to shield for the first time the growing and stable financing that this country needs.

By law we will have to meet the objective set by the European Union that public investment in science and innovation is 1.25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the year 2030. This is a historic claim by the scientists of our country .

P.

Have you calculated how much money this effort involves, we are talking about billions of additional euros?

R.

The EU thresholds are to reach 2% of GDP investment in R&D in 2023 and 3% in 2030. Of this investment there is a public and a private part.

Europe already recognizes that the private sector must be superior to the public sector, this is how the countries where the most is invested in science and innovation, such as Germany or Sweden, work.

The part that corresponds to the public sector is 1.25% of GDP in 2030. That is our commitment.

You have to make a gradual increase.

Right now we are on the path to fulfill it.

According to the INE, in 2020 public investment accounted for 0.58% of GDP and we have to reach 1.25% in 2030. In 2021 there was a 60% more budget than in 2020 and in 2022 we almost doubled that of 2020. In addition, the autonomous communities have increased their investment in science.

And the contributions of other ministries to R&D must be taken into account.

Q.

How much money will it be in absolute terms?

R.

We do not have the data from the INE and we will not have them until November.

With the current rate of investment, we have already complied.

What you have to do is maintain it with that financial commitment that we are shielding by law.

This is unprecedented in our country.

We are sending a message of budgetary stability, which is what Spanish scientists need to know that they are going to have a guaranteed trajectory in their country.

P.

One of the main demands of the scientific societies (Cosce) was to create a multi-year science budget.

What will happen to the budgets when the European funds run out?

R.

The restlessness is cleared.

We shield financing by law.

European funds are not going to be something sporadic.

P.

The CC OO union criticizes that this law does not close the contract of health researchers and neither does that of technical personnel.

Is it so?

R.

Within the law we recognize technical personnel in the same category as researchers.

We will no longer speak of researchers and technicians but of research personnel.

This is recognized by law for the first time because for us one and the other are equally important.

What we have made clear to the unions is that we cannot create a horizontal career path for technicians with this law, but the Government of Spain is sensitive to this and there is a civil service law pending this year that it will surely pick up.

The technicians reach a certain level, 28, and there they stop.

However, we recognize the figure of the technologist.

For the first time in the 2022 public employment offer we have made places available for them.

By internal promotion they will be able to access these places.

P.

And the health personnel?

A.

This law recognizes health research personnel as personnel of the public R&D system.

Its the first time.

If a health researcher dedicates more than 50% of his time to research, from the law we mandate the autonomous communities that have health competencies to recognize specific categories for these researchers.

In addition, they are the ones who can develop the career of contracted labor personnel who do research work in the national health system.

If all goes well, the new Science Law may be approved in the summer

Q.

What can be done to stimulate investment by Spanish companies in R&D?

R.

I have a positive vision.

Things have changed.

After the pandemic, the culture of innovation has permeated companies.

Depending on other countries disables us.

Innovation is an increasingly precious value for companies because they have an economic return.

The transformation plan implies that the way out of the pandemic crisis is through financing and the mobilization of public resources.

The idea is that together we find the solution to the great challenges of our society.

The companies have communicated their challenges to us and these, aligned with those of society, have led us to come together in strategic plans for recovery, such as the strategic plans for the electric vehicle, cutting-edge health, renewable energy, and the food sector.

P.

This law also creates the Spanish Space Agency. How will it be structured and who will be in charge?

R.

It will have a double affiliation to the Ministry of Science and Defense.

The Spanish Space Agency will bring together the works of science and technological innovation.

It must coordinate all space users, who are not only Science and Defense, but also Economy, Transport, Ecological Transition or Agriculture.

The law determines that we have one year to launch the agency.

It is also a mandate of the Spanish Security Strategy.

The autonomous communities and cities can compete with proposals to host their headquarters.

It will bring together activities that we already do, therefore the staff already exists in Science and Defense.

A not very large administrative structure will be generated.

The budget will depend a lot on where you are located.

For example, if a city council offers a building that already exists as a new headquarters.

Q.

When do you expect the new Science Law to be approved?

R.

We believe that if everything goes well, and there is enough consensus, it could be approved this summer.

R.

What plans do you have for your future?

A.

Plans in politics always go wrong.

In my life I would have imagined being mayor or Minister of Science.

It is not in my plans to imagine anything beyond my current responsibility.

I think this is the great opportunity of my life.

I say it like this, with an open heart.

President Pedro Sánchez has given me a vital, professional opportunity to participate from the highest responsibility in improving people's lives and my duty is to fulfill it every day.

The future will depend on the circumstances.

In addition, I am clear that I am a telecommunications engineer and I am sure that at some point in my life I will return to my profession.

I don't know when or how, yes.

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