• Theresa Warrior

    Madrid

Updated Saturday, February 12, 2022-12:53

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After spending more than two decades researching in prestigious centers in Germany and Switzerland, physicist Daniel Castaño Díez (47 years old) is about to pack his bags to return to Spain.

On April 1 he joins his new job at the Biofisika Institute in Leioa, near Bilbao, where he has obtained a position at the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).

He will leave a permanent position as a senior scientist at the University of Basel

, in Switzerland, where since 2015 he has been calculating the three-dimensional structures of proteins, an area of ​​great interest for the pharmaceutical sector for its applications in the design of new drugs.

When he found out that Spain was going to acquire a high-end electron microscope like the one required by his field of specialization, he thought it was a good time to return: "I'm from Vitoria and I wanted to be close to my family, which, added to the effort that has been done to install an infrastructure in Spain like the one required by this microscope, made me take the step although

I am aware that the conditions are going to be different in terms of resources, bureaucracy and salary

", he explains by phone from Basel.

"In terms of salaries, Spain cannot compete with Switzerland and you expect this. In my case, I believe that my new salary at the CSIC will be three times less, despite the fact that in Spain I will have a higher professional category

. What we denounce is that the experience accumulated abroad or in Spanish centers that are not part of the CSIC

or Public Research Organizations (OPIs)

is not reflected in our salaries

, as it is done with researchers who have developed their careers in those centers", he points out.


A "comparative tort" that was implemented through a controversial royal decree in 2019 and that does not correct the draft law to reform Law 14/2011, of June 1, on Science, Technology and Innovation, which This Tuesday it will arrive at the Council of Ministers, as President Pedro Sánchez confirmed on Friday during an act on the occasion of the Day of Women and Girls in Science.

At the end of January, the public hearing phase was closed to submit allegations Although during the processing process of the expected reform of the 2011 law, in which both former Minister Pedro Duque and the current Minister of Science, Diana Morant, have worked , changes and improvements have been introduced that the scientific community applauds, researchers have mobilized because

there are several aspects that they believe should be modified

, including article 25.5 to which Castaño refers.

They consider it "an inexplicable punishment precisely towards the scientists who have led their career around mobility and internationalization" and that goes against two of the objectives that the law mentions in the preamble, internationalization and the reduction of inbreeding. .


In addition to their base salary, in the salary of the scientists of the state OPIs there are supplements for seniority (three years), productivity (six years) and research activity (five years) accumulated throughout the research career.

But according to article 25.5 of the Science Law, the merits accumulated in universities and technology centers both in Spain and in any foreign institution are not recognized or evaluated.

to obtain five-year terms:

"Now, when we come to the CSIC, what we have done in other centers is not reflected in your salary.

In my case, my 25 years are not evaluated but there are hundreds of people affected. You return to Spain and it is like starting In addition, it is a scourge when it comes to attracting people from outside because it is a very ineffective hook to tell a scientific personality that if they come to investigate at your center, all the experience they have will not count in your salary" , reflects this physicist, who trusts that the text that is approved on Tuesday collects this demand.

It is a scourge when it comes to attracting people from outside because it is a very ineffective hook to tell a scientific personality that if they come to investigate at your center, all the experience they have will not count in their salary

Daniel Castano, physicist

"If those who work with you have less CV and earn more, it tends to be quite annoying,"

says Perla Wahnón, president of the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE).

The body he chairs has made an exhaustive review of the entire process of reforming the Law, and regarding the latest text, he considers that there are positive things, such as "that the aid for Ramón y Cajal contracts is maintained or that the figure ' tenure track', which is usually done to attract talent with a stable contract for a certain time, but we consider that it is not yet sufficiently outlined and we have to see under what conditions it is cancelled".

It also values ​​positively that the scale of Tenured Scientists in the OPIs will not be eliminated, as one of the previous texts of the reform stated, "and that the excessive bureaucratization of the system be recognized, although without yet detailing effective measures to alleviate it ".

Wahnón also considers that

the reform of the law advances in the recognition of the labor rights of researchers who start

, by establishing compensation for the predoctoral and postdoctoral contract of access after the end of the contract.

"I am 72 years old, I started in 1974 and I was a university professor, and I have had to struggle in this world of men. Now things are better regulated but

science has to be financed because science is not financed and the reform of the law of science does not guarantee the need for this increase",

explains Wahnón, professor of Physical Chemistry at the UCM.

In this regard, it recalls that the total amount (national financial and non-financial and European funds) allocated in the 2022 General State Budgets to Research, Development, Innovation and Digitization policies was 7.72% higher than in 2021, although national funds only account for 3.77%.

"That's not how we get ahead," she says.

"In addition, we continue to have the big problem that there is a very high percentage of the funds that most favor business innovation that remain unexecuted. In Spain there is low business innovation, and the Government can enter there, setting up structures for knowledge transfer," says Wahnón.

Science has to be a state affair and be treated as such

Perla Wahnón, president of the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE)

What is lacking?

"In Spain, researchers are very good but money is needed. Spain dedicated 1.41% of GDP in 2020 compared to 4% of the countries that invest the most. You have to look at Germany and England, I no longer say Korea or Israel , where they take investigations out of their hands. And it's not just money, it's a structural problem," he says.

The director of the COSCE underlines that "we are facing a modification of the law, not a new law. We hope that the Pact for Science achieved by former Minister Pedro Duque generates sufficient consensus to be able to make a coherent and lasting science law , because the one that is going to be approved now is provisional. The State Research Agency must be refounded, and with these figures it is not enough. And we must not forget that

the European funds are until 2024, then we will return to the other amounts, which they are quite derisory for the needs we have

."

hospital workers

Hospital researchers are also disappointed, criticizing that "not even with a pandemic involved" have they managed to regulate the employment situation of research and technical staff working in hospitals.

Because in hospitals, remember, not only patients are treated, a lot of research is also carried out.

Although they positively value the improvements proposed in the preliminary draft Law amending the Science Law, they consider that it will not

facilitate the development of a research career in the National Health System

, which is something they have been claiming for years: "The main The problem we have is that research in the National Health Service (SNS) is practically unregulated and varies a lot depending on the autonomous community.There are no specific positions for research or technical staff, and most of them are precariously hired in different ways In some cases, it is the staff of the hospitals themselves that make the contracts, and many times they are hired by foundations created to manage the research funds of the hospitals.

These foundations have led to greater precariousness, with worse working conditions, and have made the career neither attractive nor have incentives,"

explains Antonio Martínez, spokesman for the National Association of Hospital Researchers (ANIH).

We are in limbo.

The absence of regulation means that in the same hospital there are people with the same positions with salaries of up to 50% difference

Antonio Martínez, spokesman for the National Association of Hospital Researchers

"We are in limbo. Because this lack of regulation means that in the same hospital there are people with the same positions with salaries of up to 50% difference," summarizes this 49-year-old scientist who researches in biomedicine, specifically in responses to hypoxia, at the Research Institute of the Hospital de La Princesa in Madrid.

In some Autonomous Communities, he reviews, "a certain regulation has been made, for example in the Basque Country a specific category was created for research personnel although it is not currently being used. In other Autonomous Communities there are researchers hired by the staff themselves without category, each one earns a different salary. And what we ask is that the Science Law take a step forward and make it clear what the framework is for incorporating research personnel into the staff of health centers. Because

although the creation of categories depends on the Autonomous Communities , the state law could develop and clarify this incorporation framework so that it is easier to develop by the autonomous communities"

, he claims.

In the latest text shown by the Ministry of Science, small changes have been introduced in article 85 of Law 14/2007 on Biomedical Research, which is the one that regulates research activities in the SNS, but according to Martínez, "there are hardly any has altered so it remains indefinite", and they do not know if their demands will be incorporated into the text that finally reaches the Council of Ministers.

"More progress must be made because otherwise it

will be a new lost opportunity to incorporate health research in health centers"

.

Another advantage of the regulation that he calls for, argues Martínez, is that being part of the templates would allow access to patients' medical records, and combine research with patient care -diagnosis, incorporation of advanced therapies- in cases where it can be done."

Likewise, he affirms that although "the Ministry speaks in the Law of Science of research personnel, we believe that it should speak of research personnel, that is, that technical personnel should also be included because

one of the great errors is to think that research is only does with people who manage teams".

"The pandemic has made people appreciate how important science is, and if we have vaccines in a year it is because there are laboratories that have been around for 20 years, they have been produced in countries where a lot of money is spent on science," recalls Perla Wahnón , which insists that "as long as there is no scientific advice that is capable of placing science transversally in all the ministries, we will use the scientific developments of other countries. We must be very clear that science has to be a matter of state and treated as such".

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