The Government of Spain plans to invest €18.4 billion in science, the largest investment in history

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The ministers Ángel Víctor Torres, Pilar Alegría, Óscar Puente and Diana Morant, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers (Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

The Council of Ministers has approved the State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research (PEICTI) for the period 2024-2027, which plans to allocate €18.4 billion to promote science and knowledge through calls for grants to fund projects in both the public and private sectors.

The Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, stressed that the plan is proof that this government is the one that has invested the most in science in the history of Spain. Morant stated that, since facing the health and scientific crisis of COVID-19, the Executive has been clear that the great social challenges must be tackled "hand in hand with science and knowledge", "as opposed to the proliferation of pseudo-science or disinformation", which endanger democracies.

The Minister for Science also stressed that the commitment to knowledge is making it possible for one out of every five new jobs created in Spain to be related to science, innovation and information technologies. "We have gone from being a country that expelled its talent with the brain drain to a country in which these jobs are growing at a rate five times faster than the average for the rest of the productive sectors," she said. A change, she added, which explains to a large extent the increase in productivity in the Spanish economy.

Commitment to science, a national objective

The annual investment in the new plan is around €4.5 billion, some €1 billion more than in the previous plan for the period 2021-2023. This means that the General State Administration will be increasing by 32% the resources dedicated to public calls for grants, allocated on a competitive basis, to finance science. The increase is 73% when comparing the figures with those of the plan implemented between 2017 and 2020.

Diana Morant argued that these plans help to increase the investment made by the rest of the public administrations and the private sector: thanks to the Executive's initiative, Spain's overall spending on research, development and innovation (R&D&I) grew by 22% in the 2021-2022 two-year period. The minister gave her assurance that Spain is "on track to fulfil" its commitment to reach 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2030, as set out in the Science, Technology and Innovation Act (Ley de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Innovación).

The Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa/José Manuel Álvarez

The budget provided for in the PEICTI encompasses numerous actions based around a "national objective": to enhance Spain's capacity to attract and retain talent, increase the quality of R&D&I, consolidate knowledge transfer and increase the innovative activity of all public and private actors in the system.

To achieve these goals, strategic planning includes measures aimed at improving human resources and research, collaboration between academia and business, strengthening infrastructure and equipment, promoting the internationalisation of Spanish science and institutional cooperation. In short, the aim is to enable Spanish scientists to "do better science", as summarised by Diana Morant, who said that Spanish science is increasingly better positioned.

Calls for scientific grants

Also in the field of science, the Council of Ministers has authorised the annual call for applications for grants for R&D projects 'Science and Innovation Missions', for an amount of 70 million euros. Diana Morant explained that this amount will be complemented by €40 million from the State Research Agency. The funds will prioritise challenges such as developing a Spanish fusion industry, improving the circular economy in the field of renewable energies or developing personalised treatments and medicines.

The Executive has also granted aid worth just over €19 million to research and development projects selected in international calls for proposals.

In addition, the Government has allocated almost €18 million to the Instituto de España and the Royal Academies and national Academies, an amount three times higher than that of the previous government, according to the minister. "We are sons and daughters of the Enlightenment that led to their creation and of the transformative and reformist spirit of our academies," Morant said.

Updating of air navigation regulations

The Council of Ministers has approved the referral to the Spanish Parliament of the draft law which updates two pieces of legislation: the Air Navigation Act and the Aviation Safety Act.

The Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has stressed that the aim is to achieve a more efficient use of public resources by eliminating unnecessary bodies and simplifying procedures. "We seek to rationalise, simplify and reinforce the coherence of the legal regime applicable to aspects such as the planning of airports of general interest and aeronautical easements, international air transport or low-risk operations, as well as the procedure for obtaining authorisations, certifications, licences and other qualifications for the exercise of aeronautical professions," he added.

In relation to the amendments to the Air Navigation Law, Óscar Puente highlighted the creation of a single Joint Environmental Commission in each airport under state jurisdiction in which the participation of the regional and local administrations is required. This committee will replace the various existing committees in order to avoid overlapping functions. "We will optimise and better coordinate all matters relating to the environmental impact of infrastructures by having a single body with the participation of each of the competent administrations," he said.

Another important aspect is the integration of the master plan regime of these airports with those of the aeronautical easements, creating in the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility a single body responsible for their adoption. The minister pointed out that this ensures consistency between planning and easements, so that limitations to land and urban planning correspond to real, effective and up-to-date air navigation needs.

The future regulation also makes the authorisation to use certain emergency or private air transport more flexible and streamlined.

With regard to the amendments to the Aviation Safety Act, Óscar Puente indicated that the administrative procedures for obtaining or renewing licences, certificates and authorisations are simplified and the infringement regime is updated.

The minister underlined the broad degree of consensus reached between the autonomous communities and cities and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces in the drafting of the regulation, and is confident that it will receive broad support during its parliamentary processing.

Dialogue with Aragon on Democratic Memory

The Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa/José Manuel Álvarez

The Government has analysed a report on compliance with international human rights standards on historical memory, after receiving a communication from the United Nations rapporteurs on the legislative initiatives in this area promoted in the autonomous communities of Aragon, Valencia and Castile and Leon.

The Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, announced during the press conference following the Council of Ministers that the Executive will today inform Aragón of the opening of the procedure provided for in article 33.2 of the Organic Law of the Constitutional Court to initiate a period of dialogue and redirect the law of this community, which repeals its previous legislation on democratic memory. If this autonomous community refuses to negotiate, the law will be appealed to the Constitutional Court.

Ángel Víctor Torres also conveyed this communication yesterday to the presidents of the regional parliaments and the governments of Aragon, Valencia and Castile and Leon.

The minister recalled that the Council of Ministers had studied on 2 April the possible actions following the proposals of these communities to repeal the regulation on democratic memory and referred the matter to the UN, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

The United Nations communicated on 3 May to the Spanish Government its report on the law passed in Aragon and the so-called "concord" laws pending parliamentary approval in Castile and Leon and the Valencian Community, which affect the State's human rights obligations.

During his speech, the minister reviewed the document signed unanimously by three UN rapporteurs, which points out, among other arguments, that these laws violate human rights, make the victims of Franco's dictatorship invisible and merge a period of totalitarianism such as Franco's regime - which they do not condemn - with a democratic period.

In addition, they prevent the disclosure of images and documents of exhumations, do not recognise grants for historical memory activities awarded to non-profit organisations and, in some cases, suppress the inventory of mass graves and activities aimed at locating, exhuming and identifying the disappeared.

Assessment of the latest economic data

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, during her speech at the press conference after the Council of Ministers | Pool Moncloa/José Manuel Álvarez

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, has referred to the latest figures for Social Security affiliation, which exceeded 21 million people in April. Alegría described these figures as "magnificent news" that brings Spain closer to "the legislature's goal of full employment".

According to the spokeswoman, who highlighted the figure of 10 million women in employment, Spain has been creating jobs for 48 months in a row, "at a much higher rate than the rest of the major European powers". All national and international indicators, she concluded, point to "the robustness of the Spanish economy".

Pilar Alegría ended her speech by congratulating the team of researchers at the Sant Pau Research Institute in Barcelona who have identified a new genetic form of Alzheimer's, "a piece of work that opens the door to new approaches in research into this disease that affects so many citizens". For her part, the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities described this discovery as a "milestone" in the genetic knowledge of the disease and recalled that this project is funded by the Spanish Government through the Carlos III Health Institute.

Non official translation