Alicante rebels against complaints for another year with help from AVI

Inside university environment differences remain. Of the 9,379,800 euros Alicante receives, 34% goes to two public universities, the University of Alicante (UA) and the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) in Elche, or 3,189,132 euros. Instead, two academic institutions in Valencia, the University of Valencia (UV) and the Polytechnic, receive 10,349,328 euros.

One of the bloodiest episodes, the so-called strategic projects in cooperation. Of the 6,100,146 Euros that universities receive from AVI in this part, 81.75% remains in Valencia (more than four million in Polytechnic and the rest in UV). Alicante gets only 6.8% for these projects: €263,687 for the UA and €154,125 for the GNA.

How badly Alicante universities are doing in distributing funds is causing government teams to voice their displeasure. «We expected more in terms of the solution of strategic projects. In our case, we were able to reach only one of the fourteen projects we submitted, so the success rate is very low. The state’s results are not good at all,” says the UA’s Vice-Chancellor for Research, John Mora. The representative of the academic institution points out that in the four lines that ended in first place last July, the result for UA was good, because it lagged only behind the Polytechnic. However, in the last lines publicly announced by AVI, a different outcome was expected in programs that promote the business value chain and strategic projects collaboratively. “Many of our groups have applied for the call and the result has been disappointing. We have more innovation and knowledge transfer capacity than our results in Alicante show”, adds Mora.

U.A. scientist Ferdinand MasterRecognized only yesterday by the National Research Award, it also reflects on crime: “It’s surprising that Alicante’s intake is so low. We all know that Valencia is bigger and has more research centres, but we are surprised by the little money that comes into our city with so many leading technology-based companies emerging from our universities, when we have such a significant research power» .

The same discomfort that exists at UA is also felt at GNA’s Elche campus. From there, the vice rector for Knowledge Transfer and Exchange, Maria Jose Lopezstates that the academic institution has submitted nine strategic projects, of which only one will receive funding. “The two Valencian universities are big and it’s normal for them to get more money in absolute terms, but you have to look at the relative terms,” he continues.

López adds: “All universities have talent and research staff accredited by Aneca. As in Valencia, if all funds fall in a certain region, you are creating a pole of innovation and leaving the environment poorer and less resourced». Finally, the vice-chancellor warns that given the results produced in the AVI calls, researchers at Alicante universities may fall into “lack of motivation and fatigue.”

The director of the Digital Intelligence Center (Cenid) is also very critical, Manuel Palomar. The head of the initiative, launched by Diputación de Alicante in collaboration with two universities in the province, thinks that “the Valencian Community does not deserve an agency with these characteristics”. From his point of view, Palomar believes that «an extraordinarily innovative character has spread from Peñíscola to Pilar de la Horadada, and that AVI annually questions Alicante’s capacity for innovation. For the former rector of the UA, the key to the complaint” is the project evaluation commission and its regional Finally, the solution he proposes undergoes “an independent assessment where regional anonymity is maintained to ensure fair distribution of funds.”

Beyond the academic field, business representatives are also rebelling against the aid distribution carried out by García Reche’s foundation. In this sense, CEV President Alicante, Joaquin Perez, says: “This is not good news because there is a lot of room for improvement in the cast. It is true that the projects presented by Alicante companies managed to increase their funding by 6% compared to last year, which shows that they are on the right track. But we need AVI’s and other institutions’ impulses to transform our generative model».

President of the Alicante Chamber of Commerce, Carlos Bath, “Generalitat does not correct the mistakes made in the General Government Budgets with Alicante,” offers another perspective. In this sense, Baño regrets that “AVI did not bet on the province of Alicante” at a time as transcendent as it is now, when the energy crisis forces innovation-seeking processes to accelerate and is in peril. Nomination to host the headquarters of the Spanish Artificial Intelligence Supervision Agency. “President Ximo Puig must make statements. I am not in favor of clashes between Alicante and Valencia. We have to go hand in hand, it’s not a question of political color,” he adds.

UGT secretary in Muntanya, Vinalopó and Vega Baja, Ismail Senent, also considers that the lower funding Alicante receives in innovation makes it difficult to change the production model, “necessary to increase the economic and industrial development of the province and reduce the rate of the informal economy”. Senent believes that AVI funds should not be distributed based solely on regional criteria, but questions the fact that the state receives only one out of every five euros allocated to subsidies.

The CC OO secretary at l’Alacantí-Les Marines expresses himself in similar terms: Paco Garcia, assures her union that the complaint was forwarded to both former minister Carolina Pascual and current minister Josefina Bueno. “It is essential that they introduce correction factors. Such decisions damage the reputation of Alicante universities and affirmative action needs to be taken, as in other areas,” he concludes.