Nuria Montserrat, Minister of Research and Universities within the new Government of Catalonia, researcher on the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), and Numerary Member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (RAED), introduced in an interview revealed on October 19 in El País that the regional authorities will assume full administration of college scholarships over the approaching yr—a duty that till now has been shared with the central authorities. The measure goals to simplify the system, make it extra equitable, and higher adapt it to the socioeconomic actuality of Catalan college students by eliminating administrative duplications and dashing up the granting course of.
In dialog with journalist Ivanna Vallespín, the Minister defined that the brand new mannequin will embrace so-called “salary scholarships”, a kind of monetary help designed to permit college college students with fewer sources to review with out having to work to help themselves. While she guidelines out the entire elimination of tuition charges, Montserrat affirmed that the Catalan Government intends to maneuver towards decrease tuition charges and a extra progressive fee construction. She additional detailed that the brand new scholarship system will embrace extra versatile standards, combining tutorial efficiency with private circumstances, with particular consideration to college students from low-income households or these with household obligations. “We want a system that doesn’t penalize those facing difficulties, but rather supports them so they can complete their education,” she emphasised.
The tutorial additionally defined that the Department of Universities is engaged on a brand new map of diploma applications to align the tutorial providing with labor market calls for and technological transformations. In this regard, she introduced a 50% enhance in medical faculty placements by 2032, in addition to a robust dedication to STEM disciplines (science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic) and research associated to sustainability and public well being. Montserrat underscored Catalonia’s function as a world scientific hub, highlighting the creation of applications to draw and retain analysis expertise, together with incentives to strengthen collaboration between universities, analysis facilities, and corporations.
Dr. Nuria Montserrat
For the tutorial, the most important problem lies in making certain that universities turn into true engines of equal alternative and innovation, succesful of responding to the social and financial challenges of the approaching decade. Her motion plan combines a complete reform of the scholarship system, a reorganization of tutorial applications, and a agency dedication to utilized analysis, with the aim of consolidating Catalonia as a number one heart for increased schooling and science in Southern Europe.
Montserrat was one of 14 main figures from the fields of analysis, increased schooling, and innovation chosen to affix the Council for Research and Innovation of Catalonia, an advisory physique to the regional authorities on main strategic choices concerning science and innovation. She can also be a member of Grup Horitzó, a platform created by the Catalan Government and composed of about twenty outstanding figures from analysis, innovation, and enterprise, established to debate and suggest suggestions for R&D&I coverage design. In 2020, she obtained the National Research Award for Talent, granted by the Government of Catalonia. Alongside her analysis work, Montserrat can also be a outstanding science communicator and served as curator of the City and Science Biennial held in Barcelona, targeted on younger feminine researchers below the title “100tífiques”. The initiative seeks to spotlight the essential function of ladies in science and know-how—each in private and non-private analysis—and to encourage women (and boys) to pursue research in scientific and technological fields.