These sessions got back to face-to-face meetings after the COVID-19 pandemic. In this way, the principal of the Universitat de València, Mª Vicenta Mestre, underlined the importance of getting back to in-person sessions in a conference that involve “the journey of an impressive amount of people in charge of research management, innovation, transfer of knowledge and libraries”.

The minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, took part on live in the opening of the sessions on Wednesday 10 November. During these sessions, he ensured that the future Organic Law of the University System (LOSU) is studying a number of changes that can help to solve some of the «risks» affecting university research. Among those changes, there were highlighted the process simplification, new assessment methods, free access to data and publications, as well as the possibility of creating multiannual budget forecasts. «In this way, autonomous communities will be able to work individually on the objective of each university».

The closing ceremony was held in different buildings of faculties of the Blasco Ibáñez Campus, whose plenaries received the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. On it took part the principal of the Universitat de València, Mª Vicenta Mestre, as the hostess university; the president of CRUE-RDI and principal of the Castilla-La Mancha University, Julián Garde; and the minister of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society of the Generalitat Valenciana, Josefina Bueno.

For the principal of the Universitat de València, the main objective of the research is “the scientific progress and its practical implementation for the improvement of the quality of life of people in its many aspects”. After highlighting the importance of the progress towards effective equality among men and women, and the fight against income inequality and the promotion of values of an advance and diverse society, the principal of the UV who also presides the CRUE-academic staff, stressed out “the need of a professional career, academic and/or researcher as well as the implementation of new contractual modalities in the new University System Organic Law”.

The president of Crue reminded that, despite the low investment in RDI in Spain (60% of the medium resources of the UE27 and 50% of the OECD), the scientific production –that is mostly done in the universities– in 2020 represented the 3,3% of the global production, a number that place this country between the eleventh bests of the world, and the ninth in highly cited researchers. In this context, he has also mentioned the high representation of Spanish universities when it comes to research, being among the best one thousandth universities around the word in the Shanghai ranking. «If, as we are requesting, in the future LOSU deadlines and responsibilities of that increase in investment to the 1% of the GDP in tertiary education are detailed and specified, we will have one of the key aspects for a significant progress», he said.

The Minister highlighted the fact that “without science, which is mainly created in universities, we would not be able to have an economic reconstruction. The public universities in Spain hold the vast majority of scientific and researcher production, which has even increased in the last years”. Likewise, she has also expressed that “we have to make a joint effort for transferring these productions to the business world and making them popular among citizens. And for transforming this knowledge into innovation, being able to apply it in different sectors”.

500 attendants of all universities, with live broadcast

For three days, around 500 persons of rectory teams and directors of research, innovation, transfer, scientific dissemination and libraries of Spanish universities have argued about the new Science Law, the changes in the CV model of evaluation in the accreditation processes, the challenge of the fight against scientific misinformation and the incorporation of the Sustainable Development Objectives in Research. They have also analysed the role of the future Science and Technology Department of the Congress of Deputies, whose aim is including a scientific perspective in the development of laws.

Different organisations of the Universitat de València, to which the principal has expressed her gratitude for they participation, have contributed to make these sessions possible. They have been pooled by the Universitat de València Languages Centre and by the UV Website and Marketing Unit.

For the first time in a CRUE sector meeting, the plenary sessions of the days 10 and 11 November, have been broadcasted, in live, by UVcomunication, in a signal done by the Audio-visual Workshop of the Universitat de València (TAU).

Over the last days, in total, more that twelve hours of audio-visual programme have been transmitted in live.

Next week, once the different presentations are compiled, the materials will be provided to the society, with free access, and the videos of each of the different tables will be accessible through the Universitat de València YouTube channel.