Barcelona

Spain's re-elected prime minister, José Maria Aznar, announced the creation of a new Ministry of Science and Technology last week. He said that this was a response to the need for research, innovation and the 'technological revolution' to be at the heart of the new government.

The ministry will be responsible for policy on basic and applied research, information technology and telecommunications. It will also gather those research activities that had been spread among other ministries, and will incorporate the country's Higher Council of Scientific Research.

César Nombela, the council's president, says: “the creation of the Ministry of Science and Technology is great news for the Spanish scientific community.”

The ministry's policy on basic and applied research will follow the strategic ‘action lines’ set out in the National Plan on Research, Development and Technological Innovation 2000–04 (see Nature 402, 223–224; 1999). The government intends to use this plan to identify research areas in which Spain can be more competitive.

The new minister is Anna Birulés, an economist and, since 1997, director-general of the telecommunications giant Retevisión. She was previously vice-president in the Department of Industry of Catalonia's regional government.

The Ministry of Education and Culture, which had been responsible for science and higher education, will be led by Pilar del Castillo, president of the government's Centre for Sociological Investigation since 1996.

The government believes that Spain's social and economic situation makes this the right moment to attempt to raise support for research to the level of most developed countries. Achieving this goal will require close collaboration with the private sector: one of the science ministry's first tasks will be to create a biomedical research fund with the pharmaceutical industry.

In his investiture speech to parliament on 25 April, Aznar said: “[Spain] has to end the traditional weakness of its scientific and technological system”. He added that the government wants the proportion of gross national product spent on research and development to rise from 0.9 per cent to 2 per cent by the end of the parliament.