Carlos Hermenegildo, vice-principal for Research has attended the meeting on behalf of the university.

In the document, RUVID calls for an agreement of every party which allows to reach the implication and the execution of the 1% of the budget of the Generalitat targeted for I+D+i programmes. ‘It is necessary a thought process about the current state of the I+D+i business.  It is necessary to increase the economic support of the I+D+i budgets, but it is also necessary to change the conditions because these budgets could be executed’, said José Capilla, vice-principal for Research, Innovation and Transfer of the UPV, and the president of RUVID.

Without forgetting the budgets, the members of RUVID highlight the budget efforts which the creation of the Agencia Valenciana de la Innovació has implied. This agency is a very necessary strategic project for the Valencian Community. ‘However, we also need an adequate coordination and coherence in research and innovation policies of the different departments of the Regional Valencian Government, the Generalitat Valenciana; we understand that this is a continuous problem in the Valencian Community which must be faced as soon as possible’, underlined José Capilla.

Stability for researchers
Another key issue affects directly to the prospects of the researchers in the Valencian Community.  In this regard, RUVID reminds that human resources for research should be a main element of the I+D+i policies of the regional government.

‘The Pla GenT is already an initiative which acts in this direction, although it should be enforced and its conditions should be improved.  More resources must be used for supporting efficient instruments in order to capture, retain and keep researchers. Moreover, these resources must include a regulation which allows worker’s job stability’, highlighted Capilla.

The less bureaucracy, the more assessment

RUVID also reports the huge administrative burden which the science faces.  In its motion, the Valencian universities request the development of an electronic administration being gradual and adapted to the user’s conditions and reducing both bureaucracy and management burden.
Moreover, universities call for a joint of their skills in science and innovation in Les Corts. Thus, the regional representatives count with a structure or mechanisms for the expert assessment in their legislative acts. ‘In order to do that, we offer a platform which represents RUVID, where the huge part of the research activity of the Valencian Community is focused’, points out José Capilla.

An emergency situation

When the document was submitted, an analysis of the general situation of the science in Spain being qualified as ‘warning’ was carried out.  

‘The main point of science in Spain is the flair of the reserachers’ community, who are able to contend for projects at the highest level in an international context. Nevertheless, all of us, who in any way work in leading positions regarding scheduling and management of the I+D+i in the research centres and universities, notice their significant concern, and as a consequence, how their encouragement decreases.  The situation is already warning, without any doubt,’ insisted Capilla.

In addition, the vice-principal of the UPV positively appraised the approval of the last measures proposed by the Government with the purpose of remodeling and improving the warning situation of the I+D+i system in Spain. ‘However, they are still emergency measures, and we still need considerably far more.  The science system in Spain needs a deeper reformulation’, insisted Capilla. ‘Ultimately, it consists in carrying out a real project through the Administrations which links efficiently and definitively the economic, social, cultural and intellectual progress of our society for the creation and the transfer of knowledge’, concluded the president of RUVID.

The members of the Executive Commission did attended to the ceremony. They were, Jesús Lancis, vice-principal for Research and Transfer of the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) of Castelló and the vice-principal of the RUVID; Carlos Hermenegildo, vice-principal for Research of the Universitat de València (UV); Amparo Navarro, vice-principal for Research and Transfer of Knowledge of the Universitat d’Alacant (UA); Manuel M. Jordán, vice-principal for Research and Innovation of the Universitat Miguel Hernández (UMH) of Elx and Ignacio Pérez, vice-principal for Research of the Universitat CEU Cardenal Herrera.

About RUVID 

Created in 2001, RUVID has the purpose to foment the science research, the technology development and innovation in every knowledge area, to enforce the role of universities understood as agents of the I+D+i system of the Valencian Community through the promotion of their cooperation and to come into existence as an only voice in front of the public administration and some other agents of the current system.
Currently, the UPV, the UV, the UJI, the UMH, the UA, the Universitat CEU Cardenal Herrera and the Universitat Catòlica de València Sant Vicent Màrtir are part of this Network.  Furthermore, RUVID has its own Executive Commission, composed by each of the vice-principals skilled in the I+D+i field of the universities which take part in the project.  And the CSIC Delegation in the Valencian Community and the Network of the Valencian Scientific Parks are honorary members of this network.