Núria Montserrat: "We are evaluating a new system to make access to medicine more equitable"

BarcelonaWe interviewed the Minister of Research and Universities of the Generalitat, Núria Montserrat, in the week that the project to build a large biomedical research center in the old Mercat del Peix in Barcelona, and when the creation of 700 new places to study the degree in medicine has just been announced in Catalan faculties over the next five years.

Minister, lately, your department has announced good news: more funding for science, new calls for scholarships, new positions... How have you managed all this, still without budgets?

— Thanks to the investiture agreements between ERC and the PSC from the year 2023, there is an annual transfer of 150 million euros for Research and Universities, which we are accommodating into the Government's plan. We have also sought funding options in Europe. For example, with the Innofab project, to have the first facility for producing semiconductors in the vicinity of the Synchrotron, an initiative in which we will have 60 million in European funds. Also, for the first time in the Generalitat, we are leading a European project (CoFound) to be able to award contracts to researchers in the field of decarbonization. 

This week, the project for this new science park at the old Fish Market has been unlocked, not without setbacks. What does this milestone mean?

— We are promoting a building that will house more than 900 researchers from five CERCA research centers in Catalonia, who will work in the field of biomedical research with precision medicine. How it is conceived is very important: a project without walls in which researchers can combine different disciplines. The lines between disciplines that previously seemed distant are becoming thinner: quantum with medicine, artificial intelligence, for example, also with biomedicine or nanotechnology. And also consider this approach with precision medicine, which will help us make better diagnoses, better prevention, and new treatments. Furthermore, internationalization is also a very important aspect: we want to be and continue to be in the talent circuit.

At the beginning of the legislature, it was committed to reaching an investment in research of 1% of GDP. Is this reaffirmed?

— Right now, as you know, the teams carrying out these negotiations are working to make this effective, not only in the scientific field. We also have other commitments in the different departments to increase the budget that Catalonia needs, that the citizens of Catalonia need.

There is a recurring complaint among scientists regarding resource allocation. Elite research, to put it simply, receives more funding and, secondarily, very good research that feels more financially choked. 

— I highly value the reflections of the research sector, but this issue has not been conveyed to me in this way. Research is done collaboratively and there are many pieces for this to be effective. In this mandate, what we have wanted to promote very much is access, with programs like the doctoral program, in which we have equated ourselves with other international ones with four-year contracts and not three-year ones. This is emerging talent, but for us it is an elite that is being formed. We must also consolidate programs that have worked, such as Beatriu de Pinós, which allows for sixty contracts and which we would like this legislature, with budgets, to be able to add twenty more. We are, therefore, very attentive to this perception that you mentioned, and we promote the different phases of the research career.

The last year has been marked by the Trump administration in the United States, which has cut ties with European research. How is this affecting Catalan science today?

— We are announcing the Talent Bridge program to reach out and attract talent who were at that moment pursuing their research careers in the United States. There are also a dozen researchers here in Catalonia whose research was threatened by program cuts [in the US], but the budgetary situation has not allowed us, for the moment, to face the investments they needed. 

With the announcement of the Talent Bridge, there was a feeling that Catalonia was preparing to receive an exodus of scientists. How many researchers have arrived with the program?

— We are preparing a proposal tailored to the Catalan system with a maximum of 28 positions per year, which is the volume we can absorb. Currently, two positions have been activated and negotiations are being finalized with two more researchers through the Serra Hunter program.

How to transfer all this knowledge created in laboratories remains an pending challenge. Has there been any progress in this regard?

— We are taking different actions because we cannot demand that the research sector transfer if we do not provide it with the resources to do so. We launched the call for knowledge transfer offices with an investment of more than 20 million euros. In this call, universities are eligible, but we have asked them in some cases to do so jointly with research centers because we also want to bring them closer together. There is also the Artificial Intelligence Factories project led by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), and we are contributing 14 million euros so that it can start working directly with SMEs and offer AI services to companies. Before the end of 2026, we will also be able to announce a new program to enhance knowledge transfer.

Upon arriving at the Generalitat, you and President Illa also insisted that a new funding model for universities is necessary. Have you already been able to agree on this with the rectors?

— This is a project that we firmly believe universities need. We need a model of evaluation based on accountability for public universities in Catalonia, which, in addition, can help us so that each university can work calmly with its own plans and actions. Above all, it is not solely a matter of money, but of what evaluation model we want. We have worked on this from the department and have shared with public universities our model based on indicators in teaching, research, knowledge transfer, social impact. All this without forgetting transversal aspects, such as gender policies or how to make the use and promotion of the Catalan language compatible with the fact that we are highly international.

Could we guarantee that this new funding will be in place before the end of the legislature?

— It would be our wish and this depends on issues that are currently being worked on, but above all the most important thing for us was to work on this evaluation model with the rectors. We have to have these consensus tables. We must also say that we have a strong, mature university system, and it's not just us saying it, international rankings say so.

Another of the things that has been announced this week is an increase in places to study medicine. Beyond these new places, has the idea of changing the way of accessing this degree been put on the table?

— A few months ago we convened the deans of the medical schools to talk about it. It is a complex issue. We talked about access and circulation of talent throughout the territory and we wanted to put the weighting system on the table. It is an idea that began to be discussed a few years ago in Castilla y León. What we are doing in the department is looking at what a weighting model should be [that the score for access to the degree is ordered by percentiles within each autonomous community before making the comparison between students on a state scale] that truly guarantees this equity in access. But it is not just about creating places and that's it, but also about building more infrastructure. In this term, we have worked on the accreditation of university hospitals and also of CAP as centers affiliated with the university. This has allowed us to shorten deadlines. The first example is in Tortosa: at the Verge de la Cinta Hospital, we have gone from deadlines of 13 months to 4 months.

Are you looking at this weighting system with the idea of changing access to medicine?

— We are considering it as a viable alternative to make this access more equitable. What we are doing is looking at existing models to ensure that this model can actually be deployed. Things have to be done and studied to see if they are effective, because what we don't want is to give false expectations. Furthermore, this weighting model would require consensus with other autonomous communities. But in the field of medicine, it is very important to create more places. If we create more places, the entry grade goes down.

Another of the challenges for universities is the use of Catalan in classrooms. Seven out of ten master's degrees offered in Catalonia cannot be taken in Catalan.

— We have been taking steps and deploying the Catalan Strengthening Plan. We are now developing the new plan which is the achievement of this one. We have appointed a group of experts to give us an objective assessment of what elements we should improve and to make this new proposal, which will be presented in December of this year. Furthermore, universities have done an enormous task to increase C1 accreditations for university lecturers.

You came into office knowing well the field you had to manage and less the political side. Has what you have found surprised you?

— It has surprised me positively. Catalonia is a country with a brutal strength and force. In the Parliament, we have commissions on university scientific policy where we can converse with parliamentary groups, present our projects and, in fact, I believe we should also mention that in the end I am doing a public service. Science is not just about doing research, but about this continuous and permanent collaboration. And I believe that here we have, fortunately, a political spectrum with which we can reach agreements.