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NANBIOSIS researcher Iñaki Ochoa, interviewed in the Heraldo de Aragón criticizes the administrative obstacles to science imposed by law.

Scientists of NANBIOSIS in the University of Zaragoza participated in the assembly held las week that put on the table the risks of applying rules in an incoherent way and without taking into account the reality of the work that researchers develop. The Spanish public contrat law prevents the University to spend more than 15,000 euros per provider per year, which complicates the purchases of material. The scientists ask that this legislation not be applied

More than three hundred researchers  have signed a manifesto in which they denounce that some provisions of the new Spanish law on public contracts prevent them from acquiring normally the material they need for their work. A law that originally aimed to fight corruption is criticizes by scientists becxause of it is causing a serious situation of inoperativeness and inefficiency. The main problem at this time is that the new regulation applies the limit of expenditure per provider of 15,000 euros per year without the need to process a public tender to the University as a whole (as to any public entity), prevoiusly this limit appliied to each research group but the  amount  is obviously insignificant for all the research groups of a University.

The professor of the Faculty of Medicine, Iñaki Ochoa,Researcher at NANBIOSIS Unit 13 advocates changing the rule that limits public contracts by not considering it “something reasonable”. As part of the Applied Mechanics and Bioengineering group of the Aragón Engineering Research Institute (I3A), he defended the need to protest to change things: “If I need a reagent to take samples in a patient that is going to be operated in a few weeks, I can wait two months until your purchase is authorized », alert. In your specific case, when working in the analysis of brain tumors, the opportunities to access surgeries are limited.

Ochoa assumes that research has always been “complicated,” both because of lack of funding and lack of resources. But in this case he believes that the new obstacles are completely excessive

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Gold/Silver/Gold Trilayer Films On Nanostructured Polycarbonate Substrates For Direct And Label‐Free Nanoplasmonic Biosensing

Laura Lechuga, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS U4. Biodeposition and Biodetection Unit is coathor of the article “Gold/Silver/Gold Trilayer Films On Nanostructured Polycarbonate Substrates For Direct And Label‐Free Nanoplasmonic Biosensing” published by

Ultrasmooth gold/silver/gold trilayer nanostructured plasmonic sensors were obtained using commercial Blu-ray optical discs as nanoslits-based flexible polymer substrates. A thin gold film was used as an adhesion and nucleation layer to improve the chemical stability and reduce the surface roughness of the overlying silver film, without increasing ohmic plasmon losses. The structures were physically and optically characterized and compared with nanostructures of single gold layer. Ultrasmooth and chemically stable trilayer nanostructures with a surface roughness <0.5 nm were obtained following a simple and reproducible fabrication process. They showed a Figure of Merit (FOM) value up to 69.2 RIU-1 which is significantly higher (more than 95%) than the gold monolayer  ounterpart.
Their potential for biosensing was demonstrated by employing the trilayer sensor for the direct and refractometric (label-free) detection of CRP protein biomarker in undiluted urine achieving a LOD in the pM order.

Article: DOI: 10.1002/jbio.201800043

Manuel Doblaré, Unit 13 of NANBIOSIS, SEMNI Award O. C. Zienkiewicz

The Spanish Society of Numerical Methods in Engineering (SEMNI) has awarded the SEMNI O. C. Zienkiewicz prize to Professor Dr. Manuel Doblaré.

The SEMNI O. C. Zienkiewicz Award is the highest award given by this company and recognizes, in this case, both the undisputed scientific curriculum of prof. Doblaré as his permanent contribution to the good functioning of this society, of which he has been a founding member and member of its executive committee until 2007, having also organized the Congress of Numerical Methods in Zaragoza in 1996.

The prize will be given during the Congress of Numerical Methods to be held in Guimarães from July 1 to 3, 2019. The Congress on Numerical Methods in Engineering takes place biennially and is jointly organized by the Spanish Society on Numerical Methods in Engineering (SEMNI, Spain) and the “Portuguese Association of Theoretical, Applied and Computational Mechanics” (APMTAC, Portugal)

Jesús Santamaría, interviewed in the Cadena Ser Radio, denounces the bureaucratic barriers that hinder research.

Jesús Santamaría, Scientific Director of NANBIOSIS Unit 9, Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit, denounces the bureaucratic obstacles of the Law of Contracts, which are paralyzing the investigations whenever it is necessary to buy material or hire personnel.  His research against cancer, which received one of the most powerful European funding of more than two million euros, is stranded because of this rule, which requires to take out any purchase over 15,000 euros. “You can not do research like that,” Santamaría said. “In other countries there are no obstacles and we have to compete with them”

With the entry into force on March 9 of Law 9/2017 of November 8, scientists encounter importan important problems to use not only their basic budgets but also to use funds obtained in open and competitive calls, so they have money available to investigate that can not be spent.

This situation of Spanish research has been reviewed internationally, for example in an article published by the prestigious journal Science: Accounting rules hobble Spanish institutes 

Until now, spending limits were applied per researcher, project and year. (that is, public tenders or having to submit several budgets). Now the limit is computed at the institutional level. This makes it impossible, in practice, to execute budgets, given that once the border of 15,000 euros per institution is exceeded, the direct contract it is not possible but it is needed to undertake the procedures of a contest which can take months.

But all of this does not happen outside Spain, not even in Europe, even though this law is an adaptation of a European Directive. In the rest of the European Union, Science has been prevented from going through this “funnel”. Santamaria calls for a stronger reaction from the scientific community towards the administration.

These obstacles and their results in the R+D were explained in an article published in El Diario.es on April 4, titled “Why does the government make it difficult to carry out scientific research spending?”: “This measure, which may make some sense for laboratories Hospitals that carry out routine analyzes in a standardized manner are meaningless when we talk about independent research groups that work in very diverse areas within the same center, and that lack the administrative personnel necessary to manage this new form of bidding. make impossible, for example, the execution of expenses in other countries, something as common as the payment to a laboratory in North America for the performance of a chemical or genetic analysis: according to this law the foreign laboratory would have to be submitted to the contest. of billing of this type of services are tiny enough so that a laboratory i International, which is extremely busy with the processing of their samples and the calibration and maintenance of their equipment, bother to start the long and complex path of opting for a public tender so that a Spanish researcher can pay for the analysis of their samples. “