MINECO

Organization (acronym): MINECO

Country: Spain

Role of the organization in FORESTERRA: Coordinator. Leader of WP1 and WP5

Webpage: http://www.mineco.es

Description:

Spanish research is mainly funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO). The MINECO’s activities aim to push back of the frontiers of knowledge in all disciplines, stimulating and funding fundamental academic research at Spanish universities and scientific research institutes. The MINECO funds research through the National Plans of Research, Development and Technological Innovation (PN I+D+I). Each plan lasts four years and includes annual public and competitive calls that are peer reviewed.

While the MINECO has no specific program for forest research, it funds forest research through different areas of the national plan: over the three years period 2007-2010, it has funded 58 ongoing forest research projects with an average of 115,869 € per project (total funding: 5,932,190 €) through its programme on Resources and Agro-Alimentary Technologies, and 15 ongoing forest research projects with an average of 127,080 € per project (total funding: 1,524,970 €) through its programme on Biodiversity, Earth Sciences and Global Climatic Change.

Funding for forest research is also available through the National Research Institute for Agriculture and Food Technology (INIA), which is attached to the MINECO. In 2010 the INIA is awarding a total of 2,610,079 € in funding through the national programme to forest research projects.

The Ministry is also highly concerned in the construction of the European Research Area. In this respect, MINECO is an active partner in 40 ERA-NETs, having invested 28.6 M € in joint calls. Of these, 5.4 M € were in the environmental area.

Key personnel:

David González Martínez – FORESTERRA coordinator foresterra@mineco.es