STATEMENT FROM THE SEVERO OCHOA CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE

The Spanish research centres accredited with the Severo Ochoa award of excellence, meeting in La Palma on the occasion of the international forum on scientific communication and public outreach, have analyzed the situation of science in Spain and its actors.

These centres, which received their awards of excellence following an exhaustive process of international evaluation, contain over 3,000 scientists widely distributed within Spain. As they possess a wide vision of both Spanish and world-wide activity in science, they wish to place their experience at the service of the institutions and governments which govern, or will govern the destiny of Spain, in order to find solutions to those problems which confront the progress of science in our country.

It has been demonstrated that the progress of science is a motor for economic and social development and the best form of ensuring the high levels of welfare and prosperity which our society demands.

For this reason, considering the critical period in which we are living, and in view of inquests carried out by some political parties:

1. We urge our political leaders to produce a formal Pact for Science, which guarantees the financial stability of scientific activity, and takes it out of the give and take of day to day politics, and to carry out urgently a deep reform of the laws which govern scientific activity, in order to ensure its competitivity. Without this necessary stability and the required legal instruments Spanish competitivity will not be restored.

2. We also ask the political parties and organizations to define their postures on scientific research, and to describe clearly in their programmes their electoral commitments and the actions they would take in government about this matter, so that the citizens can support with their votes those political options which show a clear wish to encourage and reinforce scientific research.

La Palma, Canary Islands, October 9th 2015