New law to organize and promote science and innovation in Spain

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. The law creates a framework to promote scientific and technical research and innovation, in order to contribute to sustainable economic development and social welfare through the generation, dissemination and transfer of knowledge.
2. It defines the Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation System as the set of public and private agents that fund, carry out or coordinate research, and requires that public money be allocated through transparent scientific and technical evaluations.
3. It creates several governing bodies for the system: the Spanish Science and Technology Strategy, the Spanish Innovation Strategy, the Council for Scientific, Technological and Innovation Policy, the Advisory Council, and the Spanish Committee for Research Ethics.
4. It recognizes rights and duties of research staff, such as sharing in the benefits from exploiting their results, and sets selection criteria based on equality, merit and ability, without penalizing interruptions in a research career.
5. It creates three specific employment contracts for researchers: the predoctoral contract (up to four years, or six for people with disabilities), the access contract for doctorate holders (up to five years, with an evaluation that counts as a merit for permanent positions) and the distinguished researcher contract for renowned experts.
6. It requires researchers funded mostly by the State General Budgets to publish an open access digital version of their work no later than twelve months after official publication.
7. It authorizes the Government to create the State Research Agency, which will manage public science funding together with the Center for Industrial Technological Development, and reorganizes the civil service grades of the Public Research Organizations.
8. It establishes the gender perspective as a cross-cutting category in all research, requires balanced representation of women and men in the system's bodies, and requires Public Research Organizations to adopt Equality Plans within two years.

Who it affects

• Researchers and technical staff at public universities and public research organizations, who gain rights, specific contracts and mobility.: New rights, contracts and mobility
• Doctoral students, who will be able to sign predoctoral employment contracts instead of grants.: Employment contract instead of grant
• Companies, which can collaborate with public centers, hire doctorate holders and qualify as young innovative companies.: Collaboration and support
• The general public, who will have free access to the results of publicly funded research.: Open access to public science
• Public administrations, which must coordinate through new strategies, state plans and councils.: New governance and planning

Words worth knowing

Acceso abierto (open access)

Publishing research papers online for free so anyone can read them.

Organismo Público de Investigación (Public Research Organization)

A public entity created to conduct research directly, such as the CSIC or the INTA.

Contrato predoctoral (predoctoral contract)

A temporary employment contract for someone working on their doctoral thesis within a research project.

Perspectiva de género (gender perspective)

Taking into account differences between women and men in every phase of research.

Joven empresa innovadora (young innovative company)

A company under six years old that spends at least 15% of its expenses on research, development and innovation.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries