Image: La Moncloa - Gobierno de España [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0], via Flickr
Minister says country is growing its number of scientific jobs at a rapid pace
The Spanish government has approved an R&D budget for 2024-27 that is 32 per cent higher than it was for 2021-23.
Both public and private sector scientists will benefit from the boost, which is also 73 per cent higher than the 2017-20 budget.
The state plan for scientific, technical and innovation research, which the government approved on 7 May, is for nearly €18.4 billion.
Science minister Diana Morant (pictured) explained that it will be used to “subsidise and finance the science that is done in our country, both from the public sector and from the private sector”.
She said it was aimed at improving Spain’s ability to attract and retain talent, increase the quality of its R&D, support the transfer of knowledge and increase innovation activity.
Supporting jobs
A major reason why science, innovation and technology are considered important in Spain is that one in five new jobs are being generated in those fields, Morant said.
“We have gone from being a country that expelled its talent with a brain drain to being a country in which precisely these jobs are growing at a speed five times faster than the average of the rest of the productive sectors,” she said.
On the same day, the Spanish government approved a call worth €70m for public-private partnerships in R&D, with a further €40m expected to follow. The call will address priorities such as nuclear fusion, renewable energy and the development of personalised medical treatments.