Manifesto por la Investigación

1. The work of researchers is not adequately recognised socially or politically.

 1.a) No general acknowledgement of research production exists, even if this production not only constitutes one of the pillars of cultural heritage, but also provides the basis for the future economical, social and cultural development of a country.
 1.b) Research seems to be constantly considered a cost, not a profitable investment, which will lead to economical consequences in the country.
 1.c) Regarding the human resources dedicated to research, Spain is far from the situation of other European countries in similar development conditions. EU recommendations regarding research are systematically ignored 1.

2. R & D investment is excessively low. This has a negative impact on several features :

 2.a) Limited resources and budget variations for Science and Technology notable hinder researcher’s work, so that many projects have to be carried out lacking personnel, funds or even security measures.
 2.b) The low investment makes research groups to opt for “cheap labour force”, by means of research scholarships and a few months contracts/scholarships successively chained with holes in between. Many of them still lack basic rights, such as protection in case of possible laboural accidents in the work performed, and they don’t have right to social benefits (unemployment rate, holidays ...).
 2.c) Erroneously, short-term technological research is favorised, ignoring that this is necessarily fed and supported by basic sciences, therefore, producing profits at longer term, whereas social sciences are often defavorised. This consideration weakens the whole system, keeping it structurally unbalanced.
 2.d) The national R & D system does not support technological development nor patents generation. This is translated into technological dependence from other countries.

3. The research career design shows many holes, creating long-term problems along the different professional stages. The most remarkable are :

 3.a) The strongly pyramidal structure of the scientific system makes the number of work positions, as one advances, drastically diminish. For researchers in the early stages, this means a great difficulty to integrate and promote within the system. The researchers holding long-term contracts have many obstacles on their promotion possibilities, despite disposing of excellent curricula. The main consequence is the ageing of the researchers entering the system.
 3.b) On the other hand, there is no prevision about the number of researchers required by the R & D system, thus personal and professional planning seems impossible. Therefore, many abandon the research career with the consequent loss of the money invested on the training and professional development of those researchers.
 3.c) The difficulty of finding work positions at the successive stages of professional development and the bad management of public announcements, make many people go through periods, sometimes long, without any funding at all, not even unemployment subsidy.
 3d) Date changes, slowness and delays on the final resolution of public announcements for work positions and research projects create unstability in the scientific system.
 3.e) Mobility is not encouraged among Spanish researchers and, for bureaucratic reasons, the access of foreign researchers into the Spanish systems is often hindered.
 3.f) The R & D public and private systems are not coordinated nor complemented. There is no doubt about the absence of commitment and initiatives from the private sector regarding research. Besides, there is a lack of policies for funding research within companies and encouraging mobility of researchers among public institutions and private companies.
 4. There is nor correct planning of the long-term scientific policies neither coordination of the existing policies at different levels.

Therefore, we consider unavoidable to decidedly push for an improvement of the situation, Thus, we call upon the national and regional governments, Universities and research centers, that they fulfill their commitments towards Spanish society and carry out the following measures :

 1. Study and realization of a coherent research career, with the collaboration of all stakeholders from different social entities involved, in order that the following is fulfilled :

— 1.a) Laboural acknowledgement and complete social protection for every researcher. Necessary measures should be taken in order to conciliate family and personal life and research.
— 1.b) Improvement of the continuity of the research career.
— 1.c) Establishment of a proportioned professional structure among the different stages, allowing access to a stable position to researchers who succeed in the necessary evaluations and guaranteeing professional promotion.
— 1.d) Encouragement of researchers’ mobility, within and without the country and among public and private sectors.
— 1.e) Encouragement of private investment on R&D, so that it leads the technological development in our country.

 2. Development of a scientific policy, answering the scientific and not the electoral commitments.

 3. Final increase of the research budget, with a correct planning and funding distribution, paying special attention to human resources.

 4. A decided impulse to encourage the social acknowledgement of research