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Escape from sunny Spain I
10 December 2009
By Rodrigo Carbajo
From a general European perspective, Spain is that sunny Mediterranean country where you can party 24/7, the food is great and the drink is cheap. While for many years we have been considered the preferred holiday destination of our European neighbours, during that time hardly any scientist has considered Spain as a place to develop a research career. Actually, historically the strongest supporters of the Spanish scientific underperformance have been ourselves, Spanish scientists. For decades, we have abandoned our own country en masse in search of better research opportunities escaping from the constantly bleak future of Spanish science.
Although the number of graduated Spaniards presents some of the best ratios in Europe, the investment in R+D in Spain has always positioned the country at the lower end of the class. In recent years there has been a significant increase in research funds, but we are still far from top nations like Germany, France, the Netherlands or the UK and we still lack a science tradition. That has meant that for many years Spanish laboratories and research institutions showed a lack of equipment and resources that made science a daily struggle, and not just against the scientific experiments. A reasonably good level of high-education combined with limited resources caused for decades the “brain drain” of Spanish scientists, with USA, UK, Germany and to a lesser extent France as our main host nations. Furthermore, the Spanish government was so happy to see us leave that they even “paid” us to do it, and a lot of money has been dedicated to fellowships for those who wanted to do a postdoc anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, a similar investment and effort has not been spent on recovering back the gone scientists, and combined with the limited number of positions in Spanish Academia and the absence of a strong R+D industry, many scientists have never returned. However, in the last ten years Spain has improved enormously in many scientific aspects, and there are now quite a few internationally recognised institutions (mainly in Madrid, Cataluña and the Basque Country) with a good number of non-Spanish nationals working in them. Many reforms are still needed in terms of investment, reduced bureaucracy and openness to the incorporation of foreigners (academic endogamy plagues Spanish universities and research institutions) in order to attain a higher level of scientific development.
Hi Rodrigo,
I'm interested in your idea that a lack of strong R+D industry causes scientists to stay away- could the lack of available scientists not be the cause for the shortage of R&D? Has R&D grown over the last 10 years? How is the economic downturn playing out in Spain?
Do you feel the careers structure fro researhcers has improved as well?
I have to say, the chance of having (late) dinner on the beach most of the year round would make up for some of the struggles. And I bet you're innundated with friends coming to visit!
Tennie Videler
11 December 2009 at 11:07 AMpermalink report this comment
Actually, there are plenty of researchers in Spain without the possibility of finding stable positions. It's not strange to find over-40 Spanish postdocs. R&D has increased significantly in the last 10 years, but we are still at 1.3% GDP, far from the most developed European nations. The crisis is affecting science in Spain dramatically. The funds for next year have been cut between 15 to 30% depending on the field, while we are seeing that in Germany, Sweden, Greece, UK and US the investment in science due to the financial crisis has actually increased.
Supposedly in the next few months we will see a new Science Law that will re-structure scientific careers, scientific "inbreeding" still being the main hurdle for researchers to find positions. Looking forward to seeing that law, but still waiting...
Having some pints in the pub with the friends is a lot of fun too!!
Rodrigo Carbajo
12 December 2009 at 08:25 AMpermalink report this comment
Rodrigo, very interesting post. I am curious about how the government "paid" Spanish academics to leave and pursue opportunities abroad. What sort of incentives were in place and how did they work? Has the government reduced the incentive program and transferred the money to programs to keep scientists domestic?
Matthew Salois
16 December 2009 at 05:25 PMpermalink report this comment