RESPUESTA A LAS DECLARACIONES DEL MINISTRO
(http://www.fisfun.uned.es/~jbuceta/science/)

El Ministro Piqué ha realizado recientemente unas declaraciones en la
revista Science (Science 2003, 299, 653) afirmando que actualmente el
número
de investigadores extranjeros en España es superior al de investigadores

españoles en el
extranjero.

Algunos de nosotros tenemos serias dudas sobre la veracidad de esa
información y hemos realizado un pequeño estudio que se va a
materializar en
forma de carta para la revista Science.

A continuación figura la carta que vamos a mandar. Puesto que existen
limitaciones de espacio (300 palabras) decidimos centrarnos en una de
las
partes más llamativas de sus declaraciones: el número de extranjeros
investigando en España es mayor que el número de españoles investigando
en
el extranjero. Esto no quiere decir que sea la única parte de las
declaraciones del Ministro que pensamos merece una crítica (gasto
militar,
investigación en ciencia básica, inversión desproporcionada en
telecomunicaciones...).

Si estas de acuerdo con la carta al final de este mensaje encontrarás un

enlace para firmarla.

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Science in Spain: How many are 'many more'?

Josep Piqué, Spanish Minister of Science and Technology (MCyT), asserted

recently in Science "now there are many more scientists from abroad
working
in Spain than there are Spanish scientists abroad" [1]. This statement
raised doubts in the collective of Spanish scientists (both inside and
outside the country borders). As scientists, we tried to verify that
statement. We were unable to obtain any of those two global indicators
from
any Spanish official source (including MCyT and National Institute of
Statistics). However, we gathered the following data:

1) 1,822 research scholars from Spain worked at US universities during
the
2001-2002 academic year, 6.8% more than the previous year [2]. Notice
that
this number does not include Ph.D. students nor researchers working at
other
profit and non-profit research institutions across the US.

2) In 2001, 154 postdocs from Spain moved to other European countries
through the Marie Curie fellowships program whereas only 39 European
researchers moved to Spain. [3]. Data from other international funding
programs yielded a similar negative balance for Spain (table 1).

3) Foreign researchers reportedly find it hard to get a position in
Spain
[4]. The phenomenon of inbreeding at Spanish Universities poses a
barrier
[5]. In this regard, the launching of the Ramon y Cajal (RyC) program in

2001 is a positive initiative, and virtually the only open door for
foreign
scientists [6]. However, they only obtained 209 RyC positions out of
1300 in
2001 and 2002 [7]. In this period, 628 Spanish postdocs moved out of
Spain
supported by the Education Ministry, only one of many national funding
agencies [8].

These findings contradict Mr. Piqué's statement. We encourage Mr. Piqué
to
publish the data on which he relied for making such statements. His
statement implies that the Spanish program to recapture scientists is
satisfactory and that the "brain drain" is not a crucial problem in the
scientific field. We consider that the reality is that present
conditions
are not adequate to reincorporate Spanish researchers nor to attract
foreign
ones. We also encourage Mr. Piqué and future MCyT ministers to establish
a
long-term scientific policy in Spain aimed at attracting high quality
scientists, regardless of their country of origin.

[1] X. Bosch, Science 299, 653 (2003).
[2] Open Doors 2002, Institute of International Education
(http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/)
[3] Annual Report on Marie Curie Fellowships in FP5 (2001), European
Commission.
[4] S. Pickin, Nature 410, 627 (2001).
[5] A. Navarro, and A. Rivero, Nature 410, 14 (2001).
[6] X. Bosch, Nature 410, 1014 (2001); ibid 411, 556 (2001).
[7] Objectives and actuations in Science and Technology 2000-2002,
Ministry
of Science, Spain.
[8] Spanish Oficial Bulletin (BOE), 21-6-01, 6-5-02, 1-6-02, 21.11.02,
28-11-02.
[9] We thank Antoni Valero-Cabre (Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA)
for
his efforts on taking a census of the Spanish scientists working outside

Spain (http://www.iespana.es/censoinvestigadoresextranjero).

...................................................
Table 1:

Program
Year(s)
Total / Moving out from Spain / Moving into Spain

Marie Curie
2001
825 / 154 / 39

2000
906 / 163 / 41

1994-1998
3563 / 637 / 244

EMBO
2001
147 / 15 / 0

2000
155 / 13 / 3

Humboldt Foundation
2001
588 - 144 * / 18 / 0

Human Frontiers Science Program
2002
95 / 8 / 0

2001
81 / 3 / 0


*The Humboldt Foundation fellowships are intended for moving in and out
of
Germany. In 2001, 588 researchers were awarded one of these fellowships
for
moving into Germany and 144 German researchers for moving out. 18 of the
588
non-Germans were Spaniards (3%) and none of the 144 awarded Germans were

heading to Spain (0%).

Data obtained from:
1. Annual report on Marie Curie Fellowships in the 5th Framework
Programme
(2000, 2001; The European Commision).
2. STRATA-ETAN expert working group report on human resources in RTD
(21-8-2002)
3. EMBO Annual Reports.
4. Annual Report 2001 (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation).
5. Human Frontier Science Program.
.....................................................................
Los autores de esta carta son:

Cristina Muñoz-Pinedo (San Diego, USA)
Miguel A. del Pozo (La Jolla, USA)
Jose A. Gálvez (Irvine, USA)
Eva M. Moreno (La Jolla, USA)
Javier Buceta Fernández (La Jolla, USA)
Marta García Sánchez (La Jolla, USA)
Jose M Valdivielso (San Diego, USA)
Elena Bascones (Zurich, Suiza)
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Esta carta, junto con el listado de firmas que hayamos recogido hasta
entonces, se enviará a Science el lunes 3 de marzo. Las firmas que
lleguen
con posterioridad se incorporarán a un segundo listado que se volverá a
enviar a Science en caso de que la carta sea aceptada.

NOTA: Science pide la dirección de e-mail de los autores. Esta dirección

será visible en nuestro listado de firmas en la web.

Si quieres firmar la carta, ve a:
http://www.fisfun.uned.es/~jbuceta/science/ (información completa) o
directamente al libro de firmas:
http://two.guestbook.de/gb.cgi?gid=688939&prot=drlcxt

El texto de la carta es definitivo y no admite cambios. Puede firmar
la carta todo el científico que lo desee, español o no,
independientemente
de dónde trabaje.