• Legislation The Science Law is approved today, pending research contracts linked to European funds

The Congress of Deputies has approved the bill that modifies the Law of Science, Technology and Innovation of 2011 which, finally,

maintains the obligation that the hiring of researchers whose work is linked to European funds be indefinite

.

The PP in the parliamentary process of the law in the Senate had introduced

an amendment that eliminated that obligation and that obtained the support of the ERC

to move forward.

However,

today Ezquerra Republicana has withdrawn that support

after reaching an agreement with the Ministry of Science.

In this way,

the final text will contemplate that researchers linked to European funding have an indefinite contract

, since the popular amendment has been rejected by the majority of the chamber.

Of the 349 votes cast, 108 have given support to the PP amendment, 189 have rejected it and 52 have registered abstention.

Joan Margall, from ERC, explained that in the Senate, the PP put them in the dichotomy of "future of research centers or rights of researchers. And that is not the case.

We wanted to negotiate with the Government but we lacked time and waist

", he said, and then explained the content of the agreement reached at the last minute with the Ministry of Science: "It is based on two points, the first is that

we have agreed to increase the indirect costs in calls from 21 to 25% departments dependent on the Ministry

, which will allow the centers' operating costs to be met".

Regarding the second aspect of the agreement, Margall explained that they are going to "

study a proposal to improve the financing system for research groups of excellence that serves to increase the structural financing

of research and stabilize the workforce".

Pedro Navarro López (PP) has accused the ERC of having agreed with the Government "without transparency and outside Parliament".

In addition, he reminded the Minister of Science, Diana Morant, present in Congress, that "

the initial text of the bill did not contemplate this indefinite contract; it is exactly what the Popular Party is bringing to Congress today.

Its wording said what what the PP says today. But the last-minute agreement with United We Can changed it".

This change received the applause of associations of researchers and unions, but it generated concern in the Conference of Rectors (CRUE) and also among the directors of the SOMMa research centers, an alliance that includes the Severo Ochoa centers and the María de Maeztu units. .

Navarro López explained that

"76 universities, 50 of them public and 57 of the most important research centers in Spain, have asked all the groups" that the amendment approved in the Senate to eliminate the mandatory indefinite contracting of these researchers linked to European funds, "was approved

in Congress. The agreement in the 90th minute with ERC leaves many unknowns, for example, does it affect universities and centers?"

Sources from the Ministry of Science and Innovation have positively valued the ERC's support

to avoid the validation of the amendment presented by the PP, which was intended, according to these same sources, "to continue making the hiring of researchers in our country more precarious.

With the agreement achieved, the Ministry will improve the financial capacity of research centers and universities throughout Spain through the calls of its funding agencies, thus benefiting the science system as a whole, without establishing any type of territorial difference".

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