Barcelona

The science commission of Spain's opposition Socialist Party announced last week that it will file an amendment to the government's proposed science budget for 2001 on the grounds that military spending “has been camouflaged as spending on research and development”.

The commission claims that basic research “has been forgotten” in the budget, in which “one in two pesetas are devoted to defence”. Its statement follows a report in last week's Nature that the government was misleading scientists by including military funds in the budget for research and development (see Nature 407, 664; 2000).

Alfredo Pérez-Rubalcaba, minister of education and science in a former socialist government, says that the Nature story matches his own data. He claims that only Pta47 billion (US$250 million) of the total budget increase of Pta572 billion will find its way to basic research. The results would be “a theoretical 6.6% increase — but this is only one point above the growth of the Spanish economy”.

In contrast, the budget for military projects will increase by 12%. Pérez-Rubalcaba emphasized that, although his party is not opposed to investment in defence, “it must not be registered as R&D spending”.