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The National Plan has a budget of more than 9.2 billion Euros for the first two years. The primary objective set for 2005 was to raise the level of expenditure in R&D to 1.22% of Spain?s GDP. The effort in R&D&I is expected to experience increases of 10% during its period of implementation.
The National R&D&I Plan maintains three general principles as its key objectives, which are to be used as guidelines for the Spanish Science and Technology policy:
Below we explain the general ideas of the National Plan for Research and Development, but if you want more detailed information, please visit the web page of the Ministry of Education and Science, http://wwwn.mec.es/ciencia/index.html, dedicated to this subject.
The National Plan has identified the following strategic objectives:
a) Related to the Spanish Science-Technology-Enterprise System (CTE):
1) Increase the level of Spanish Science and Technology, in both size and quality.
2) Increase the number and quality of human resources, in both the public and private sector.
3) Enrich the international dimension of Spanish Science and Technology, with special reference to the European Research and Innovation Area (ERA).
4) Strengthen the role of the public system in the generation of relevant knowledge.
5) Improve the perception and communication of scientific and technological progress in Spanish society.
b) Related to the coordination of the Spanish Science-Technology-Enterprise System:
6) Strengthen the cooperation between the Central State Administration and the Autonomous Regions and, in particular, improve the coordination between the National R&D Plan and the R&D&I plans of the Autonomous Regions.
7) Enhance the coordination between the advisory bodies of the National R&D Plan, and improve the evaluation and management procedures of the Plan.
8) Strengthen the cooperation and coordination between the public R&D institutions.
c) Related to business competitiveness:
9) Improve the technological and innovative capacity of Spanish companies.
10) Promote the creation of an innovative business network.
11) Contribute to the creation of a favourable environment for R&D investments.
12) Enhance the interaction, collaboration and association between the public and private R&D sector.
The National R&D Plan has the following structural elements:
The scope of action ranges from basic research to activities of technological
innovation.
a) PRIORITY AREAS
|
AREAS |
PROGRAMMES OR ACTIONS |
|
Life Sciences |
§
Biomedicine §
Health and Well-being
Technologies §
Biotechnology §
Basic Biology |
|
Environmental and Agro-Food
Technologies and Sciences |
§
Agro-food Resources
and Technologies §
Environmental Sciences
and Technologies §
Biodiversity, Earth
System and Global Changes Sciences |
|
Space sciences, Mathematics and Physics |
§
Space §
Astronomy and
Astrophysics §
Particle Physics §
Mathematics §
Physics |
|
Energy |
§
Energy |
|
Chemistry, Materials, Industrial Design and
Production |
§
Chemical Sciences and
Technologies §
Materials §
Industrial Design and
Production |
|
Security
and Defence |
§
Security §
Defence |
|
Information
Society Technologies |
§
Electronics and
Communications Technology §
Information
Technologies §
Technologies for
Information Society Services §
Strategic Action of
Security and Confidence in Information, Communication and Intelligence
Services |
|
Transport
and Construction |
§
Means of Transport §
Construction |
|
Humanities, Social and Economic Sciences |
§
Humanities §
Social, Economic and
Legal Sciences |
|
Transverse
Strategic Actions |
§
Tourist Technologies §
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology §
E-science |
|
Horizontal
Areas * |
§
International
Cooperation in Science and Technology §
Promotion of Human
Resources §
Support to Business
Competitiveness §
Equipment and
Infrastructure §
Promotion of
Scientific and Technological Culture |
(*) Open to all fields of science and technology
b) PARTICIPATION MODALITIES
o Predoctoral and postdoctoral grants in Spain and abroad
o Contracts for doctors and technical staff
o Aids for the mobility of researchers
o Research, technological development and innovation projects
o Individual projects, cooperation and coordination projects and networks
c) ECONOMIC INSTRUMENTS AND FISCAL INCENTIVES
Subsidies, credits, contests, capital participation and Human Resources participation, projects, infrastructure, business competitiveness and complementary actions.
d) MANAGEMENT, EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Law 13/86, of 14th April, for the Promotion and General Coordination of Scientific and Technical Research (also known as “Science Law”), provides a mechanism for the dynamic updating of the contents of the National R&D&I Plan through the annual approval, by the Inter-ministerial Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT), of the corresponding Work Programmes.
The Work Programme is aimed at facilitating the participation of the different agents of the Spanish-Science-Technology-Enterprise (CTE) System in calls for aid programmes for R&D activities, identifying the interventions that will be made by the directive units of the General State Administration (Administración General del Estado, AGE) throughout the year.
The 2006 Work Programme, aimed at serving as a tool for the planning of aid beneficiaries, structures the information according to the type of activity eligible for financing, grouped in three blocks: R&D&I projects and complementary actions, infrastructure and support to company competitiveness, and promotion of human resources (fellowships, contracts…). Information is provided for each of these actions, attending to the nature of the benefiting organisations (public or private), the distinctive features of the aid programmes, the different units and organisations in charge of their management and the calendar foreseen for the publication of the calls.
The 2006 Work Programme also gives detailed information on the strategic programmes of INGENIO 2010, mainly related to the strategic promotion of large interactive projects between the public R&D sector and the private sector, the increase in the critical mass of highly skilled research staff and the increase on time spent on research and the consolidation of research staff in the public sector, basically universities (the latter in cooperation with the different Autonomous Regions).
Figures for 2006 indicate that the General State Administration is going to fund the different players in the system – through public calls – with approximately 3.1 billion euros, 40% of which will be exclusively dedicated to the public research sector (public research organisations, universities…) and 13% to the private sector.
With regard to the distribution by the type of aid programme, 73% of financial resources will be earmarked for the financing of R&D projects (including complementary actions), 16% for scientific and technical infrastructures and actions for the promotion of business competitiveness, and 11% for the promotion of human resources engaged in scientific research and technological development tasks.
All relevant information has been included in the 2006 Work Programme of the CICYT, which can be found on the web page of the Ministry of Education and Science: http://www.mec.es/ciencia/jsp/plantilla.jsp?area=plan_idi&id=2
