Can Catalonia compete globally in the highest-impact research areas?
The scientific research carried out in a country is one of the indicators of its level of maturity, its international leadership, and its capacity to face multiple global challenges. Over the last 40 years, Catalonia has made a colossal effort to catch up with the gap it had accumulated. Even so, our R&D efforts still fall short of what the European Union recommends. We must therefore consider how to improve for the future.
The first thing we must do is analyze the research conducted: see how its intensity has evolved, the number of publications, and what impact it has had. The number of research publications conducted in Catalonia grew extraordinarily, by a factor of 8 between 1984 and 2004 thanks to the contributions of universities, hospitals, and CSIC centers in Catalonia (CSIC-CAT), and by a factor of around 3 in the last 20 years, now including the CERCA centers. That is, a factor of 22 in total. We have achieved a leading position after growing at a rate between three and ten times faster than most countries in the world.
At universities with a long history, growth was achieved by factors between 12 and 18, and at CSIC-CAT and the newer universities by factors between 27 and 35. In the case of CSIC-CAT (21 centers in Catalonia), the transformation has been complete, as new centers have been created in strategic areas and young and valuable scientific personnel have been attracted without inheritance.
The CERCA centers established since 2000 are co-authors of 48% of publications in Catalonia. Furthermore, they have contributed to creating synergies with existing universities, research centers, and hospitals, either by forming confederations or creating dual affiliations. However, Catalonia's overall production is trending toward stabilization, as we are now approaching the standards of the world's most advanced countries. We must therefore reflect on how to maximize our efficiency to compete internationally in the strategic areas of greatest impact.
It is necessary to diversify research
An indicator that helps to delve deeper into the analysis of any research system is the distribution of the relative weight of areas of knowledge. This allows us to assess which areas deserve strengthening. Global data indicate that Catalonia leads internationally in the biosciences (55% of articles). In contrast, our contribution is comparatively low in the scientific areas most closely linked to hard technologies (engineering, physics, chemistry, materials, environment). This indicator confirms one of the weak points of our economy: the excessively low weight of industry, a challenge that has been pending for many years.
Specialization in areas of high strategic value is a widespread feature. For example, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia is the country's leading institution in engineering, contributing 10% of total publications. However, it is less well-known that the CSIC-CAT is the first or second institution in Catalonia in various hard sciences (marine, environmental, materials, applied physics, nanoscience, chemistry, geosciences, microelectronics, astrophysics). In these areas, the CSIC-CAT contributes between 25% and 50% of publications produced in Catalonia and also excels in artificial intelligence and robotics. However, the overall contribution of the CSIC-CAT to publications in Catalonia is currently 7.5%. Unfortunately, the relevant weight of the CSIC-CAT is often under-recognized. Sometimes it seems that not all "science done in Catalonia" is considered "science from Catalonia." All scientists in Catalonia contribute to increasing R&D efforts through the funding of public state and European agencies. It does not seem justified, therefore, to receive differential treatment depending on which of the three Parliaments on which we depend approves the corresponding budgets.
It is a priority for Catalan society to increase the influence of industry as a source of economic activity and well-being, while balancing this with the fight against climate change and sustainability. The Catalan research system must efficiently and coordinately leverage the capabilities of all its institutions. We still have room for improvement to increase our impact on the challenges we face. The excellent examples of research centers that combine the commitments of the state and Catalan governments (ALBA synchrotron, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, CSIC-CAT institutes with joint ventures) demonstrate that both know how to find successful formulas for this goal.
The race for excellence
The CERCA centers have implemented a governance system that has proven its efficiency and proven ability to promote excellence. Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to generalize it to other research centers and universities, although progress in implementing excellence has been remarkable. In fact, all available serious analyses and evaluations show that Catalonia has high-quality research centers that have achieved a widely recognized international impact in their respective fields. For example, nine of the research centers recognized with the Severo Ochoa and Maria de Maeztu seals of excellence are owned by or partly owned by the CSIC-CAT.
History has left us with a highly competitive research system in Catalonia, but it still has weaknesses. Having multiple implementing institutions and funding agencies coexisting could be an advantage if they are well coordinated and create synergy. The challenges we face prevent us from squandering the strengths of our R&D system.