The leader of the Popular Party, sworn in as president of Government last Saturday, has unveiled the composition of its Executive. the Mariano Rajoy has counted again with former ministers such as Cristóbal Montoro (Treasury and civil service), Fatima Báñez (Employment and Social Security), Luis de Guindos (Economy, Industry and Competitiveness) or Soraya Saenz de Santamaria (Vice-president of Government, Minister of the Presidency and to the Territorial governments). In addition it has built-in signings as Maria Dolores de Cospedal (Defence), Juan Ignacio Zoido (Interior) or Alfonso Dastis (Foreign Affairs and Cooperation) for his cabinet.
as in the previous legislature, Rajoy has once again let the science without ministerial portfolio own
The science has become to stay a legislature more without ministerial portfolio own. Despite the fact that the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE) called for the creation of a Ministry of your own, the Popular Party did not contemplate the inclusion of a specific Ministry in their electoral promises. Neither did the agreement of the PP and Citizens, which itself made clear the need for a commitment by a State Pact for Science.
The PP did not promise a Ministry of Science
“More than you have or do not have a Ministry, what matters to me is to know if they are going to or not to believe in the science and the scientists of this country, to work in public or in private,” he says Daniel Ramon, ceo of Biópolis S. L, a spin-off of the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations. “To create a specific Ministry for science may not serve as anything if the Ministry of Finance stifles research. If you believe we’ll know it soon. It will suffice to know that you want to move a state pact for science. If there will be more of the same,” he says in a statement to Hypertext.
The cuts in investment in science has made it back to Spain a decade, according to the experts
Mª Jesús Moro, spokesman of the Popular Party in the area of R & D, pointed out in an interview with this medium, as a staff, we felt it was good to integrate in a Ministry, the areas of research and universities. His desire, like that of many members of the scientific community, has not been realized. Science just took a few seconds during the debate of investiture, in which Rajoy came to affirm that his Government had invested in R+D+i in 2011. The reality, however, is obstinate: the General Budgets of the State have made it back to Spain a decade.
“I am in favor of the creation of a Ministry of Science and Technology, but with funding of truth for the public and private research, with a State Pact for science in a way that, whatever happens, govern those who govern, the science and researchers are not left helpless and without the power to move forward,” he explained to Hypertext María José Hernaiz Gomez-Dégano. The professor of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Complutense University of Madrid, says that “the creation of a Ministry would help to provide greater visibility and social awareness of the importance of science in the future of our country.”
Your opinion is similar to that defended by Flora de Pablo, professor at the Centre for Biological Research of the CSIC (CIB-CSIC). In his opinion, to have a Ministry of Science and Technology, more than Innovation, that no one interprets very well the term, it was “absolutely necessary”. The reason? That those who manage it “might talk about you with the Ministry of Finance, main boicoteador of initiatives and programmes on r+D+I”. Paul says to the Hypertext, without independent Ministry, “it is best to be left with the Secretary of State R+D+i and the new State Investigative Agency where they are”. “Move it with Education would be a delay in the execution and not contribute anything, since that is a “block budget” independent of Universities,” says blunt.
The scientific community defended the Ministry of Science for anyone who manages to “talk about you with the Ministry of Finance”
currently, Spain does not bet for the science and research system is becoming more and more aged. Various reports, such as that published recently by Cotec Foundation, show that the Spanish R & D is light years ahead of Europe, despite the protests of the red tide. In the opinion of Jorge Barrero, director-general of Cotec, “it is not essential that a Ministry of their own to make a good policy for science and innovation, you can also do from a Secretary of State”. “However, to have a own Ministry is often a good indicator of the priority that each Government to an area, and it will always be easier to defend the interests of science from the table of the Council of Ministers. For example, when negotiating budgets with Finance, you will always be better that talks between the owners of the respective portfolios,” he says.
Photograph of the demonstration by the science in Madrid, 27S 2013. Credit: Marcos del Mazo. Source: Science and Future
According to Barrero, who was chief of staff of the last Ministry of Science, that was in Spain, managed by Cristina Garmendia, “the importance that it gives a Government to the science is not demonstrated only with the creation of a Ministry, the priority is the weight given to the R & D in their political action and their budgets”. In your opinion, what you really should worry about is that science is not a priority in the political agenda, they lose definitely their strategic consideration. “I’m not saying that this is of concern to the community scientific, it would be dangerous for the country,” says Hypertext.
“What we really should worry about is that science is not a priority in the political agenda”, says Jorge Barrero, of the Cotec Foundation
Since the Government of Carlos Arias Navarro, before the adoption of the Constitution, the establishment of the Ministry of Education and Science in 1975, the research has been appearing of form interminente in the different Executives. Adolfo Suárez maintained that structure, modified slightly with the arrival of the Ministry of Universities and Research, portfolio to which Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo joined the area of Education, as Felipe González in their successive Executives. On the contrary, the R & D disappeared in the Governments of Aznar (1996-2000), Rodríguez Zapatero (2004-2008) and Rajoy (2011-2016). The first two amended the composition during its second legislature: Aznar created the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2000, and a Shoemaker would own in 2008 with the portfolio of Science and Innovation. Rajoy has kept his bet of the first legislature, leaving to the research finally without their precious Ministry.
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