Priorities in a time of crisis

Among the measures for reduction of public expenditure announced by the new government on Friday, special importance is attached to the one concerning research and development activities, though its scale is rather modest in comparison with the total. In fact, it is well known that one of the most notorious shortcomings in our production system is our relative poverty in research and development, which is well below the European average.

Spanish governments invariably pay lip service to the proposition that, if we are to change our model of growth so as to make it more reliable, and render our economy relatively safe from crises and bubbles such as the present one, it is necessary to invest in knowledge, education and innovation. But when the pinch comes, their deeds often contradict their words.

R&D requires a sustained effort, without ups and downs that, for lack of continuity, can annul or dilute the progress made. There is the very real risk of interrupting successful programs, some of them of great impact on the production system, and of frustrating whole generations of specialists who, finding no future in our country, end up throwing in the towel and emigrating to other countries, which then reap the benefits of their skills.

Our system of R&D is still too fragile, because it has never had the benefit of a sufficiently long period of sustained support; and it cannot be stricken, without serious consequences, by a succession of cutbacks such as those decreed in the last years of the former government, and those now announced by the new one. Given the nature of this activity and the system of setting public budgets, it is generally not possible to break off a process of research and development, and then start it up again later as if nothing had happened.

The benefits of a vigorous system of R&D do compensate the effort invested in setting it in motion, but this is in the long term. For this reason it is very vulnerable to oscillations that can be more easily absorbed by other sectors, in which the rebound time is shorter.

In the last three years, since the crisis became more acute, one of the areas hardest hit has been the Public Research Agencies (OPI), which are essential to the whole network of research in our country because of their relative importance and to the specialization of their projects. These are often intimately related to the needs of certain dynamic production sectors, and to those of public administrations.

Nobody denies the gravity of the deficit problem and the need to take measures to cope with it, but it is precisely in moments of crisis, when a certain skimping of resources is unavoidable, that it becomes more necessary than ever to set priorities and stick to them. And it seems to be beyond doubt that one of our national priorities has to be that of building a solid system of research and development — a goal from which we are still far away.