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Researchers Alberto Jiménez Schuhmacher, María Jesús Lázaro and Pilar Gayán have demanded that funds for science be increased and that investments be continued over time.o.
One of the conclusions of the first table of the XII 'Antonio Torres' Summer School, held this Friday and organized by the PP of Aragon, was the following: "Investing in science is always profitable and this financing has to be continued over time because science is not improvised." Under the title 'Science, politics and government', several experts have analyzed the relationship between science and politics, the value that the latter gives to research and how the coronavirus and other pandemics can be combated.
In his speech, the head of the Molecular Oncology Group of the Aragón Health Research Institute, Alberto Jiménez Schuhmacher, stated that "science is a safe value, but either take care of it or die", which is why he has urged the need for a State Pact to reach the investment levels of twelve years ago in ten years and to approve a Research Agency with multi-year budgets and a specific calendar, among other measures.
In the words of Jiménez Schuhmacher,"Countries are rich because they research, research is always profitable, however, the times of science are not the same as those of politics. Science is not improvised, now we cannot say there is COVID, we put 1.000 million and in three months or a year we will have the vaccine." "If there are now researchers who are developing this vaccine, it is because they have been studying the genetics of viruses since the 60s," he noted.
In this sense, the researcher and CSIC delegate in Aragon, María Jesús Lázaro, has demanded more human and material resources for science, but above all she has demanded that "these investments be continued through multi-year plans so that the projects do not stop." .
Lázaro, who has presented the work carried out by this organization that brings together more than 10.500 researchers in Spain, has advanced that the objective now is to address specific challenges that solve society's problems. "Science has to be linked to society and politicians have to be aligned with science," he stated.
The deputy in the Cortes of Aragon and researcher, Pilar Gayán, has also influenced this last point, who has moderated the debate and who has advocated for closer relations between science and politics.a. He has also requested the implementation of the Science Pact that was signed around four years ago in Aragon "and many of these measures are still undeveloped", as well as increasing the budget in the Autonomous Community.
"Aragon invests 0,9 percent of its GDP in science, while there are neighboring communities such as Navarra and Catalonia with an investment above the national average," Gayán exemplified.
The Summer School continues during the afternoon, with the second table on 'Simulated Democracy. Communication and truth in times of pandemic', in which the journalists from El Español and El Mundo, Cristian Campos and Iñaki Ellakuría, respectively, and the professor of Constitutional Law at the Complutense University of Madrid, Eloy García, are participating. This colloquium is being moderated by the deputy in Congress, Eloy Suárez.
