Administración e investigación científica y técnica: veinte años después de la Ley de la Ciencia

Abstract

Twenty years after the Science Law, the current regulatory and organisational framework of scientific research in Spain is examined with consideration of its distinguishing features. With this in mind, the article examines, first, the regulations defining the scientific powers of the State, the autonomous regions, local institutions and universities in terms of constitutional jurisprudence and the recent statutory reforms. It then systematises by formal type and material purpose the regulations passed while exercising their respective powers, as well as the organisational forms of the scientific government.

This analysis suggests some degree of imitation and parallelism between the autonomous regional and state regulations, possibly due to its regulatory articulation and the lack of co-ordination and convergence of scientific policies. As a result, the study finally looks at the regulations required by this inter-governmental co-ordination and collaboration and the bodies and procedures by which it could better be articulated, as well as reviewing some recent political initiatives which aimed to overcome this lack of collaboration.