They deplored the Ministry of Science’s “abandonment” of nearly 2,000 young researchers

Young researchers’ organizations denounced the “abandonment” of the Ministry of Science and Innovation’s Leave them out of extended contracts Which has been applied in many cases as a result of the Covid pandemic, a situation affecting about 1,700 scientists.

The Ministry of Science excluded pre-doctoral contracts from this extension About 1,700 young menIn a statement, they criticized the “FPIs en lucha” organization, in which they indicated that this measure was stipulated by the 2021 decree and a law of the same year that included urgent measures to prevent and contain the health crisis.

These regulations granted the search staff an extension of their contract for a maximum period of five months to mitigate delays caused by the health emergency, which – as they stated – was welcomed by those appointed, as It can make up for five months of lost work Due to the quarantine and restrictions on movement and access to files and laboratories.

But they have now indicated that this extension has left out the 2018 calls, which must end pre-doctoral contracts between June and October 2023.

In the same note he also lamented the situation It leaves them without funding to make up for lost timeIt leads them to “extreme danger” and in many cases forces them to resort to unemployment benefits to finish their investigations.

The young researchers criticized the “dangerous inconsistency” of the government, for insisting, however, that it wanted to reverse the dynamics of job insecurity for researchers, and they pointed in this direction. 2% increase in the salaries of public sector employees Which will benefit approximately 15,000 scientists, technicians, and support staff from public research institutions, or increase the salaries of pre-doctoral call recruits from 2019 onwards.

They criticized the “grievance and discrimination” involved in excluding researchers from the 2018 calls from this increase, and denounced that young researchers from calls before that year benefited from extensions to their contracts.

Sources from the Ministry of Science explained that the former Ministers of Science and Universities, Pedro Duque and Manuel Castiles, agreed during the pandemic. Approval of an extension due to a state of alarm For funded pre-doctoral researchers from these departments whose contract expired in less than three years from the start of the pandemic, because of their great impact on doing their work in the laboratory or in the field.

These extensions are for up to five months, It has benefited more than 5,000 researcherswho can ask them, may notice efe Same sources from the Ministry of Science.