Congress approves new Science Act
All parties in the Parliament, except IU-ICV, supported this new act that will go into effect between April and May of this year.
BY BIOCAT
After nearly two years of debate, the Science, Technology and Innovation Bill (121/000080) was approved yesterday in the competent Parliamentary Committee with the support of the PSOE, PP, ERC, CiU, PNB and Grup Mixt , and opposition of IU-ICV. This act will go into effect between April and May of this year.
This act substitutes the one that was passed in 1986 (Act 13/1986 on the Sponsoring and General Coordination of Scientific and Technical Research), and aims to modernize and drive the Spanish R&D&i system. It also recognizes the new administrative reality in Spain, which is divided in autonomous communities, that was not taken into account in the previous act. The other two large-scale challenges this act poses are to design a professional career that will attract researchers –transforming grants into work contracts- and help make science lead to economic strength –getting scientists to move between the public and private sectors. Under the framework of this act, a new State Research Agency will be created.
Video of the session approving the Science Act in Spanish (16/3/2011)