On 31 March 2021, Royal Decree 202/2021 of 30 March was published in the Official State Gazette, reorganising certain public research bodies of the General State Administration and amending Royal Decree 1730/2007 of 21 December, which created the State Agency of the Higher Council for Scientific Research and approved its Statute, and Royal Decree 404/2020 of 25 February, which developed the basic organisational structure of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
This reorganisation involves the extension to these centres (INIA, IGME and IEO) integrated in the CSIC of the legal regime of a state agency, which is more flexible and appropriate for the management of science and which, moreover, has been recovered by the Law approving the General State Budget for 2021. It should be recalled that the actions of the state agencies take place in accordance with the annual action plan, under the validity and in accordance with the relevant multi-annual management contract, which establishes, inter alia, the objectives to be pursued, the results to be obtained, the plans necessary to achieve the objectives, the personnel, material and budgetary resources, and the effects associated with the degree of fulfilment of the objectives. The management contract determines the mechanisms that allow for accountability for non-compliance with objectives.
This reform strengthens the measures for evaluating and monitoring the activity of IPAs, and for monitoring the effectiveness of their performance. In this regard, part of its funding will be conditional on the evaluation of its results from 2022 onwards.
