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Covid-19: Spain sets aside €34m to extend researchers’ contracts

Image: Universidad Pablo de Olavide [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Flickr

Minister says ‘all extension requests granted’, with future requests to be approved once received

Spain’s science minister, Pedro Duque, has told the country’s Senate that the government will allocate €34 million to extend the contracts of researchers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking to Spain’s upper house of parliament on 23 February, Duque (pictured) said that all the extensions requested so far had been granted—571 contracts, worth €4.6m.

A further €29.5m will be set aside to extend researcher contracts due to end between 2 April 2021 and 1 April 2023, Duque said, adding that the maximum possible extension would be five months.

He said the earmarked funds would “protect one of the groups in our scientific community most vulnerable to the disorders caused by the pandemic, and on which our future depends”, referring to the “more than 3,000” young researchers the allocation could cover.

Duque told senators that “all the extensions have been granted normally” and that future extensions “will be granted as soon as the corresponding requests are received”.