113
to get Maravall to agree to a pact in which he would agree to certain amendments to his proposal concerning the Institute. We finally managed, then, to
stave off the demise of the IAC, which would after all retain its status as a
consortium, although it would be wounded at its most sensitive point, its
personnel. It was definitively established that the Ministry of Education and
Science would oversee and manage this aspect. That is why the eleventh additional disposition of the Law concerning the Promotion and General
Coordination of Scientific and Technical Research is dedicated entirely to the
IAC. It is worth highlighting two key points of this added clause. First, that
the Minister for Education and Science would chair its Governing Council.
Second, the IAC’s own staff would consist solely of non-civil servants dedicated to functions other than research, and the Grades of Astrophysicist and
Adjunct Astrophysicist established by Royal Decree 2678/1982 of 15 October
would be extinguished. Research personnel, then, would be provided by bodies associated with the IAC; that is to say, by CSIC, the University of La
Laguna, and the Canarian Government. The IAC was thus bound hand and
foot, and found itself in the extraordinary situation of being a research centre
prohibited from hiring its own staff to carry out research. The Law of Science,
that had so changed and generally benefited the system of Spanish research
and development had undermined the very law that founded the IAC, thereby
creating the first dysfunctions within the Consortium, above all in its staffing
structure. These defects have taken years to set right, and even then have only
been partially remedied.
The day after the new text of the Law of Science was approved, Minister
Maravall called me personally; I had only ever previously seen him at the
inaugural acts of the summer of 1985. I was greatly surprised, even more so
when he began by politely apologizing—very courteous of him—for what he
had done and for the way in which it had been done. He pleaded with me to
understand why all this had occurred. ‘The Minister of Science,’ he explained,
‘could not be put in the intolerable position, when asked about the IAC on
foreign visits, of not being able to say anything.’ He continued by affirming,
‘That is why it was essential that so important a research centre should be
directly answerable to my ministry’. He told me that he was willing to come
immediately to the Canaries to talk it over with me, to which I replied that I
was prepared to go and see him that very week and place my directorship at
his disposal. He made an appointment for me to meet him in his office a few
days later.
My witness at the meeting was Professor Teodoro Roca, recently appointed
to the Chair of Astrophysics at the University of La Laguna. The minister was
accompanied by Professor Juan Rojo, Secretary of State for Science and
12 Science Meets Politics…
to get Maravall to agree to a pact in which he would agree to certain amendments to his proposal concerning the Institute. We finally managed, then, to
stave off the demise of the IAC, which would after all retain its status as a
consortium, although it would be wounded at its most sensitive point, its
personnel. It was definitively established that the Ministry of Education and
Science would oversee and manage this aspect. That is why the eleventh additional disposition of the Law concerning the Promotion and General
Coordination of Scientific and Technical Research is dedicated entirely to the
IAC. It is worth highlighting two key points of this added clause. First, that
the Minister for Education and Science would chair its Governing Council.
Second, the IAC’s own staff would consist solely of non-civil servants dedicated to functions other than research, and the Grades of Astrophysicist and
Adjunct Astrophysicist established by Royal Decree 2678/1982 of 15 October
would be extinguished. Research personnel, then, would be provided by bodies associated with the IAC; that is to say, by CSIC, the University of La
Laguna, and the Canarian Government. The IAC was thus bound hand and
foot, and found itself in the extraordinary situation of being a research centre
prohibited from hiring its own staff to carry out research. The Law of Science,
that had so changed and generally benefited the system of Spanish research
and development had undermined the very law that founded the IAC, thereby
creating the first dysfunctions within the Consortium, above all in its staffing
structure. These defects have taken years to set right, and even then have only
been partially remedied.
The day after the new text of the Law of Science was approved, Minister
Maravall called me personally; I had only ever previously seen him at the
inaugural acts of the summer of 1985. I was greatly surprised, even more so
when he began by politely apologizing—very courteous of him—for what he
had done and for the way in which it had been done. He pleaded with me to
understand why all this had occurred. ‘The Minister of Science,’ he explained,
‘could not be put in the intolerable position, when asked about the IAC on
foreign visits, of not being able to say anything.’ He continued by affirming,
‘That is why it was essential that so important a research centre should be
directly answerable to my ministry’. He told me that he was willing to come
immediately to the Canaries to talk it over with me, to which I replied that I
was prepared to go and see him that very week and place my directorship at
his disposal. He made an appointment for me to meet him in his office a few
days later.
My witness at the meeting was Professor Teodoro Roca, recently appointed
to the Chair of Astrophysics at the University of La Laguna. The minister was
accompanied by Professor Juan Rojo, Secretary of State for Science and
12 Science Meets Politics…