La Ciencia Española no necesita tijeras

Or, translated: Spanish Science does not need scissors.

This week the Spanish 2010 budget was presented by the Government - the main conclusion is a deep cut in the budget. For instance, the Spanish National Research Council, will have to make do with 15% less than in 2009.

At the same time, more more is lent to enterprises - yes, lent, not given - to mask the cuts. These loans are presented in the budget on equal terms as the "gifts" to universities, to research institutes (but also companies), and to individual researchers as specific research grants.

This is something the president, Zapatero, had promised not to do when coming to power.

To follow the suggestion in this blog, I post a specific reason for not cutting science funds here:

- Funds for science in Spain should not be cut (or converted into loans for companies as the minister Garmendia is doing), because spending, and output, is still well below average for developed countries.