INVEST in science
Spain is increasing its spending in R&D&I at record levels, hoping to reap the benefits from a well-rounded knowledge economy.
The national budget for 2021 foresees an increase of 59.4% for the Ministry of Science and Innovation compared to 2020, with a total of EUR3.2 billion, the largest direct investment in R&D&I in absolute terms in Spain’s history. In general, what is the distribution strategy for this budget?
“Spain has decided to heavily invest in R&D&I.”
Spain has decided to heavily invest in R&D&I in order to use the additional funds, which are about EUR1.1 billion, to support the reforms that the science and innovation sector needs. We will reform the way in which we hire researchers and use part of the funds to finance this process. It is important to note that we want to stabilize the hiring of researchers, and a large portion of the resources allocated to the recovery plan will be used for research as well as innovations. These funds will be used to foster business R&D processes so that the returns from those new programs can be attained in the short term. We will also consolidate the programs for innovation that we introduced during the last few years. We have an ongoing program to invest in new technology-based companies, but this program has to be further consolidated. We will also upgrade the system so that we have the funds to not only invest in businesses that have demonstrated their ability to transfer their developments into new products, but also invest in the first stages of research processes. That is one of the gaps that we have to cover.
The scientific community, which was badly hit by budget cuts in the last decade, has viewed this national budget with optimism. What is your strategy to ensure the scientific community has better working conditions?
The first step is the reform. It is important to create a new mechanism to hire scientists and researchers, and these mechanisms target the early absorption of talented scientists and researchers in the job market. We want this mechanism to be applied to the market as soon as possible, and we want the resources designated for R&D to increase subsequently until they reach average European levels. This should ideally lead to a system that continues to scale up such that it can continually absorb the talent in the market. That is paramount: the early absorption of talent. We want to increase the volume of hiring and the contracting model to hire more researchers.
The European average is to allocate 2.1% of the GDP to R&D, while in Spain that ratio is 1.25%. What else can be done to reach the European level?
The most important aspect is the Pact for Science and Innovation, a short document that has been signed by nearly 50 organizations, including worker unions, businesses, and scientific organizations, among others. This pact includes a commitment to meet the goals that the EU has set out for every member country, including investing 3% of the global GDP by 2030. Furthermore, of that amount, 1.25% has to be public investment. If we reach that target, we should reach the European average by 2024 or 2025.
In 2019, you said Spain would increase its contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA). How has your career as an astronaut influenced that decision?
I have been in ESA for 30 years, so I know how profitable it is to invest in those technologies. Europe is still far behind the US in that area in terms of investment, so we still have a long way to go. The other European countries will increase their budgets in that area, so Spain has to continue to get closer to the European average.