Madrid

Spanish astronomy departments are not hiring the people needed to take full advantage of the country's recent energetic involvement in international telescope projects, according to an extensive study undertaken for the government.

Xavier Barcons is worried that Spain will not be able to make full use of the Gran Telescopio Canarias. Credit: GTC; A. SANCHEZ

Spain is involved in a host of international astronomical projects, including the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) under construction in Chile, the 10-metre Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) in the Canary Islands, set to begin operating in 2004, and several astronomical projects under the aegis of the European Space Agency (ESA).

But “the recruitment of new researchers is so low that we won't be able to profit from all this effort”, says Xavier Barcons of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research, one of the authors of the study, which examined the performance of Spain's astronomers between 1999 and 2001 for the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Only half of Spanish astronomers hold permanent positions, the study has found, with the rest working under temporary contracts or fellowships. And in the period studied, the number of researchers increased by less than 2% per year. “Current human resources are scarce,” the study concludes. “Without a substantial increase in the next years, we will be unable to face the challenges represented by the new instruments.”

“Even in those areas in which Spanish astronomy has a longer tradition, such as optical and infrared astronomy, the shortage is severe,” says Barcons. “And soon we will have 90% of the time of the GTC. We are not going to be able to take advantage of the resources.”

Barcons adds that although Spain pays for 7% of ESA's scientific programme, Spanish astronomers only get about 2% of the available observing time on the space agency's XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. Overall, Spain has 11.5 astronomers per million inhabitants, the study says, whereas Britain, Germany and France had 23, 17 and 16, respectively, in 1998.

The study's authors based their findings on an analysis of the scientific literature, data gathered from the 34 centres and university departments, and a questionnaire sent to 450 researchers, 40% of whom responded. In the period studied, each Spanish astronomer published an average of one paper per year in journals whose papers are cited elsewhere an average of just over three times each. The Spanish papers were cited almost five times each on average — indicating, the study's authors say, that Spanish astronomy is in good scientific shape.

Respondents to the questionnaire ranked the creation of more permanent posts for researchers as the top priority for the field, followed by more reliable research funding, and then full Spanish membership of the European Southern Observatory.