Spain spends billions training researchers who remain in emigration due to lack of opportunities

Jose Manuel Torres Ruiz wanted to return to Spain. In 2017, this researcher was in France and registered for the selection process to apply for a Juan de la Sierva grant offered by the Ministry of Science to postdoctoral students. At the same time, an official position was released in the country of Gaul that suited his profile. He also demanded. He got both. On one side of the balance is the opportunity to return and return to his country everything he has invested in it, but with a temporary contract and then uncertainty. In the other, a stable position and more opportunities for professional development. He said the decision was made almost by itself. Spain will have to wait.

No one knows how many Josémanueles There are people all over the world who want to return to Spain. Nor does anyone know exactly how much the state invests in its researchers. But there is one conviction, though it is not quantified: Spain spends billions on high-level science training to further produce it for other countries.

There are some approximations. Professors at the Universidade da Coruña Moisés Canle and Xosé Luís Barbeito in this article calculate that for a master, doctor and four-year postdoctoral researcher this figure is € 403,600. This figure comes to an additional four years for 44,400 euros, 22,200 for a master’s degree, 92,000 for a doctorate, 71,500 euros after reading the first two dissertations in public contracts, and another 81,500 for the next two. Plus a few tens of thousands of indirect costs (equipment, mentors) and a few thousand more during regular overseas stays, congresses, and so on.

I remember the picture of opening a window and throwing out half a million euros. Let’s say 10,000 researchers are left: that’s 5,000 million euros. Your head explodes

Moses Canle
– Professor at the University of Coruna

“And these calculations are very conservative,” Kanle says. When I think about it, I am reminded of a picture of a window opening and a half-million euro dumping. And he examines the reports: “There are no clear estimates of how many people were left during the previous crisis, but I would say there were between 10,000 and 15,000 people, and of course I am not. Let’s be conservative, say 10000. 10000 researchers for 500000 euros [5.000 millones de euros]. Your head explodes. It is nonsense to allow people in whom we invest astronomical sums in training to leave the country and, moreover, with this discourse “they will return”. We are not in the 90s and it is likely that many who are leaving now will never return. ”

Going to researchers is not a problem. In science, it is important to homogenize talent so that people can adopt new methods. But you have to be reciprocal, you have to import what you do for export, otherwise you lose talent and money.

Like Jose Manuel. Or Aida Sanchez Bretano, 34, a biology graduate with a master’s degree in biochemistry, molecular biology and biomedicine, and a doctor who also wanted to return from the United States, where she was offered the opportunity but has already resigned. “I managed to go back to Europe, but not to Spain, where no one wants, because I have no contacts in the laboratories,” he said, adding that he had always received the same answer: “We like you very much, but we have an internal candidate, you are second. “. “I had to agree there that I was not going to return to Spain and that I should close the door.” He found a job at a private company in Southampton, England and managed to meet the need to be close to Spain for family reasons.

The Ministry of Science and Innovation does not know how many Spanish researchers are abroad. The department, headed by Diana Morant, says it has no official statistics and refers to RAICEX (a network of Spanish researchers and scientists abroad) that has identified 4,000 but knows it still exists. Ministry sources also reduced Conley and Barbeto’s calculations and estimated the cost of a doctor’s training at around € 100,000 (this figure is lower because it covers only a doctoral student, does not include the four-year postgraduate studies professors have). , Which can be understood as another stage Universal). With these figures, Spain’s recent spending on researchers producing for others will be more than a thousand in the lowest range among the € 400 million, according to added stages. We should also add those who received a doctorate abroad or went abroad of their own free will and not forced to seek a future.

This would be, more or less, the case in early Israel. He graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry at the Universidade da Coruña and traveled to Canada to pursue a doctorate. He did not know then, but he was going to never return. While doing his doctorate in Quebec, he was offered a job in Liverpool when he graduated, and from there nine months later he went to Cambridge, a leading research group in his field, where he had been since 2009 and had just been promoted. Would be a senior researcher.

Now he will no longer be at the expense of someone giving him projects and he can find his own funding. A little step away from Spain, though in his case do not worry because he does not feel the need to return. There was a window of opportunity that did not materialize when Ramon I. Cachal asked for help three times, which he was not given. “I would be back then,” he said. That did not happen and now he has his own team in one of the best chemistry departments in the world.

Bureaucracy, cross-border, balance

Each researcher abroad points to a situation that prevents her from returning to Spain. Torres Ruiz, a public servant in Clermont Ferrand, explains that in addition to being obvious – job stability and development opportunities, which gives him a permanent position in France, compared to the lack of perspective in Spain. – He talks about bureaucracy. “The process of becoming official here is similar to the process of the council [el CSIC, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas], But easier because it is shorter. In the board you have to record all the merits you have and so on. Here is a summary, without any delay. It was relatively easy, because justifying all the merits that you have in your CV … us [los españoles] “Because we know the system, but for a foreigner it can be an insurmountable system,” he said. As well as predictability. “They are much more regular locally, they go to the same day every year. There is no calendar in Spain, you need to know when the calls come out, one year comes out and the other does not. This way you can not make a vital plan. ”

Sanchez Brittano first talks about the famous crossbreeding. “He asked for a scholarship, he asked for a scholarship, but he was always second.” Until he surrendered. But, like Torres Ruiz, he also explains the distinguishing factor. His hiring a Postdoctoral It was a matter of days by the Morehaus School of Medicine in Atlanta. He was told about the vacancy at a congress in Krakow, became interested, received a call from the center, sent a CV, and “it took two days to say yes.” The trip itself was delayed for several months due to visa problems, but the operation was seen and not seen.

Earlier we talked about imports and exports, balanced balances. Or in the case of unbalanced Spain. Talented, always. “Leaving researchers is not the main problem,” says a view shared by the entire scientific community. “It is very important in science for homogenization of talents, for people to go abroad, to see other methods, to adapt to new methods. It’s all crucial. The problem is that you have to be reciprocal, you have to import what you do for export, otherwise you lose talent and money. ” What is happening in Spain?

Early explains the situation in China, vice versa, for example. “It invests a lot of money and takes people away,” he said, adding that the movement runs parallel to sending students to its many universities around the world, where they study and implement this immersion in other methods and systems. And then returned to their home country to apply that knowledge. “It’s like a football team,” he explains, perhaps knowing that this is a country that loves football more than science. “If you have a very strong academy, but you sell to all the players when you train, it limits your potential and you can grow as a team. You are interested in a strong academy, but you are also interested in involving players from other academies. “If you only export and buy, but do not generate talent, you are unbalanced and waste resources.”

“We train very well in Spain”

In the end, three researchers agree on one issue. The Spanish problem is not talent or training. “We are well trained,” said Sanchez Bretano. Early emphasizes this from his experience. First, personal: “When I started my first semester in Canada, I had two theoretical chemistry courses. I had a very normal grade from my diploma and at the university I was statistically much higher than in Coruna, I also spoke French and did not know a word of French. I thought I would be kicked out. “Well, I got the best marks in these two courses,” he said. If not on the air: “We pay extra compensation by training in Spain. It’s harder, but we’re learning a lot. ”

Now he sees it from the other side in his service. “We have Spanish doctoral and postdoctoral students and they are highly respected. When you find a freshman who has just graduated, you will not see the difference between those who come from Vigo and Cambridge who have the best chemistry department in the world. There is no problem with the level. ”

In conclusion, respondents point out that although they are better off in the countries where they currently work, research-related problems are somewhat multiplied in their areas of residence as well. “During the investigation, we often thought that the problems were for the country, but in reality, as a rule, they are the same. What changes are the solutions that each country offers to its problems, ”said Torres Ruiz.

Asked about them, the Ministry of Science recalled the measures it had taken in the new Science Act to encourage this return: “There is a commitment to stable and growing public funding,” the speaker explained. “We have perpetual contracts for scientific and technical activities without a replacement rate or offering public employment; New postdoctoral stabilization contract with reservation of places in universities and public research organizations. It is also planned to approve a return plan with more measures in the coming weeks. ”

The problem that Torres Ruiz finds is that it’s too late. He says he is 40 years old at the best professional moment. “I have two interns, three Postdoctoral Fellowship, I establish international connections. I am the most productive now. Then you stabilize. If you are 45-50 years old, you risk turning Spain into an elephant cemetery. When you give a person the opportunity at the age of 32-33, he explodes. It is also interesting to bring older people, but it is completely different, it is a different profile, ”he said.