Spain

The new Spanish National Plan 2013-16 explicitly addresses the promotion of R&D and innovation projects oriented to societal challenges. These are: a) health, demographic change and wellbeing, b) food safety and quality; productive and sustainable farming activity; sustainability of natural resources, marine and maritime research, c) safe, efficient, clean energy, d) sustainable, smart, integrated transport, e) actions on climate change and efficient use of resources and raw materials, f) social change and innovation, g) digital economy and society safety, protection and defence. Addressing these challenges through collaborative and multi-disciplinary R&D and innovation is one of the four strategic goals of the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2013-20.

A critical challenge for improving competitiveness and economic growth in Spain is improving the innovation capacity of the business sector. The innovation performance of the Spanish business sector still lags behind the OECD median in several dimensions. The gap is particularly important in terms of R&D activity and patenting. Few Spanish firms appear in the top 500 corporate R&D investors. The structural features of BERD remain pretty much the same as in 2007. As in most OECD countries, R&D is mostly concentrated in the manufacturing sector accounting for 60% of BERD, whereas services represent around 35%. Foreign affiliates account for 40%. The share of SMEs and large firms in BERD is almost even. Recent changes have been introduced to improve innovative entrepreneurship, as this is an important driver of employment, including a new Law (14/2013) in support of entrepreneurship and their internationalisation. Venture capital remains under-developed and the number of young patenting firms ranks at the bottom of OECD indicators. Business start-ups are smaller and with a lower survival rate than most of their Euro-area counterparts. The ease of entrepreneurship index ranks at the bottom-half group of OECD countries. <br /> Instruments to promote business innovation currently in use include: credit loans and other financial instruments (e.g. CDTI RDI projects, EMPLEA and public-private collaborative projects for societal challenges), and competitive grants (e.g. NEOTEC, technology platforms, collaborative R&D), equity financing and venture capital (Fondo INNVIERTE), as well as tax incentives on corporate income for business R&D and for IP revenues, and public procurement for R&D and innovation. Programmes for start-ups and SMEs include: The NEOTEC programme (competitive grants) for young innovative firms, and the Horizonte PYME -which supports the business growth of SMEs through proof of concepts and scientific, technical or commercial feasibility, and the Enterprise Growth Program. The latter provides business services to SMEs with potential to grow such as coaching and personalised-consulting in digitalisation, innovation, finance, marketing and commercialisation, and other areas. At regional level, a network of technological and innovation centres, science parks and institutions such as TECNALIA –the biggest research and technology organization, provide technology transfer, and extension and consulting services to companies including those in traditional manufacturing sectors as well as in technological domains such as nanotechnologies, new materials, advance manufacturing, etc. which are important for the enabling the next production revolution. <br />

Skills for innovation are an important area where Spain needs to improve. Although tertiary education attainment in adult population are near (slightly superior) the OECD median, investments in tertiary education (per GDP) remain below the general trend in developed countries. As regards PISA results in science and Phds in science and engineering, Spain ranks in the bottom half OECD although the number of PhD graduates in general increased dramatically in the 2000s prior to the crisis. The government aims to further raise STI skills and training capacities to international standards. In the context of fiscal consolidation, between 2010 and 2014, and in line with the policy for all the public employment vacancies, the government temporarily limited the capacity of the public research institutions and universities to call for new public employment permanent positions and to replace retirements. Since 2015 the situation has returned to normal and the universities and public research organisations could create new openings for hiring permanent researchers. Furthermore, last year the government approved fifty new positions (50) for permanent researchers in public research organisations (Investigador distinguido) with same rights than civil servants but under the regular labour law. Limited public competitive project funding for R&D also affected temporary positions. However the government has maintained the principal programmes for the training and employability of PhDs; Juan de la Cierva, Ramón y Cajal, Industrial Phds o Torres Quevedo provide opportunities for training and temporary postdocs positions in universities, PRIs and firms.<br /> The Spanish National Plan established several measures to improve support to training, human capital formation, the mobility of human capital between research organisations and the private sector, and optimization of recruiting policies for researchers in the public sector. The plan for the “Promotion of Talents and their employability in R&D and innovation” contains specific measures to increase the uptake of doctoral programmes, training of technologists, and the hiring of young researchers in training. These are mainly competitive tenders and subsidies, and extension of existing contract programs for PhDs.<br />

The improvement of STI governance and administration of STI policies continues but the process of reforming has been slow. In November 2015, the National Research Agency was finally created. This organisation has been tasked with the efficient management of public R&D investment through the elaboration and implementation of Spanish research funding policy. The agency has incorporated the ANEP that has been in charge of the peer review and ex-ante evaluations of competitive R&D funding since 1986, and has included a strong mandate of ex-post scientific and technical monitoring and evaluation and impact assessment of the funding instruments in line with international standards.

The government aims to reinforce public research capabilities and to foster research excellence and infrastructures in order to increase the international impact of universities and research centres. Spain’s performance in scientific publications is at the OECD median, although the ratio of public R&D expenditures to GDP and the density of global 500 universities are slightly below. A major challenge for the public research system is to continue improving the quality of outputs, now in the OECD average, and to better contribute to industrial competitiveness and solving societal challenges commensurate with national strategic plans. Between 2010 and 2014, government appropriation for R&D decreased by 30% and this has limited has limited strengthening of the STI system and consequently, Spain’s growth potential. The central government’s budget for public expenditure on R&D in 2014, 2015 and 2016 indicates that the decreasing trend has been reversed; however, budget levels remain at the 2006 level (EC, 2015). <br /> One of the main objectives of the Spanish Strategy is to promote institutional strengthening through rewarding and funding Spanish international centres of excellence, the already recognized “Severo Ochoa and María de Maeztu” Programme for research centres and units. Performance evaluation of individual researchers employed in universities and PRIs was established in 1989. An individual-level permanent increase of salary, provided on the basis of a favourable assessment of the research outputs of 6 years, could be granted after a review. Having a minimum number of positive 6 year evaluations is also used as requirement for participation in some hiring and selection committees, or a reduction in teaching activities, etc.<br />