The historian Joaquim Nadal, Minister of Research and Universities, reflects that “in the 19th century Catalonia was the factory of Spain; in the 20th century it had tourism and a decaying industry; and the Catalonia of the future will have relevant weight in the world if it is capable of converting science and knowledge into the industry of the 21st century.”
What is the most important limiting factor for research in Catalonia?
I am convinced that there is no limiting factor and that, if financing was one, we are overcoming it.
Researcher Joan Massagué says that “the salaries of researchers in Catalonia are extremely low compared to those of the countries they aim to emulate.”
30% of the researchers at the CERCA centers [research centers of the Generalitat] are foreigners. We export talent, but we attract talent. Probably the salary of all researchers has to take a leap. But he cannot give it if it is not proportionate to what university professors give.
Spending on R&D in Catalonia is 1.67% of GDP, the EU average is 2.3%. These are data from 2021, the latest published.
In 2022 we have reached 1,116 million euros in I D i. It places us at 0.8% of GDP in contribution from the Generalitat. We are getting closer to the 1% provided for by the Science Law and the National Pact for the Knowledge Society. We closed in 2023 and continue to grow.
Counting all the contributions, how much will we reach?
Adding public and private sector, close to 2% by 2023.
Do we have to aspire to be the Girona of science and do it very well with a small budget?
I have the aspiration to do it very well, as we are doing now with an insufficient budget, but knowing that the budgets in science and knowledge have to grow. The contradiction between results and financing lasts one or two years, but it does not last five.
There is concern that, instead of growing, funding will decrease again when the European Next Generation funds run out.
It will not decrease because the Generalitat government will compensate it budgetarily. There must be no setbacks in the financing of research or the university system. Growth will be sustained and sustainable.
The physicist Lluís Torner, in his conference at the Cercle d’ Economía, defended “frontier research as an engine of development for a society like ours.”
We will board the train of quantum technologies. We are committed to turning the ICFO [Institut de Ciències Fotòniques] even more into a reference center and the commitment to increasing investments in the Quantum Valley program.
Other countries are jumping on the bandwagon with lots of resources. Can you specify what the investment will be here?
I would rather not do it. Not yet.
What other areas of frontier research need to be prioritized?
I would say that everything that is the world of biomedicine and bioengineering. Advanced therapies, also supercomputing, synchrotron light lines…
I don’t see anything really disruptive, they are paths already laid out.
Before inventing anything new, we better consolidate what we already have, right? I would like to be more disruptive.
Has Catalonia made more progress in research than in innovation?
Very clearly. We are already, to a large extent, a first-class country in basic science, we are not in transfer or innovation. The Catalonia of the future will have relevant weight in the world if it is capable of converting science and knowledge into the industry of the 21st century. It is something that the president has very much in mind.
Solutions?
We are solving it through the strategic transfer and innovation plan that we developed from the Law of Science. The researcher who creates a spin-off has to notice that it does not become an obstacle but rather an opportunity. And the economic results of the spin-offs have to revert to the centers from which they are born.
Do you share the opinion that bureaucracy has to be reduced so that researchers can dedicate more time to research?
What limits most, not only research, but economic growth in Catalonia, is the excess of bureaucracy. A person who wants to open a store, or who wants to create a cogeneration plant, has as many or more difficulties than a researcher. The difficulties are not inherent to the research system. They are inherent to the overlap of European, Spanish, Catalan and local regulations, which has ended up becoming a spider web that we have the obligation to undo.
What are you doing to resolve it?
Everything we save researchers in management work will benefit more efficient science. The researcher has to notice that the system protects him. We are opening avenues, for example, to incorporate personnel specialized in fundraising into universities. The Law of Science establishes that the research system must have a specific treatment. This means that a regulatory framework typical of the pure public sector cannot be applied, like a corset.
How do you assess the impact of the process on the research system?
The impact of the economic crisis of 2008-2012 was much greater than the impact of the process.
Is that an acknowledgment that you had an impact?
As far as I can judge since I have been in charge of this department, I do not see any negative impact. I see in the Government and in the set of parliamentary forces that supported the Science Law a commitment to research. Economic crisis aside, research and the university system of Catalonia have emerged unscathed from the process.
Hasn’t the perception of the scientific community reached you that other countries are running and we have been standing still here?
Since I came here we haven’t stopped running. We may not be running enough, but we haven’t stopped running. The great unemployment was the hole from 2010 to 2020. It took us ten years to recover the level of financing from 2010.
