We have said on occasion in these pages that is convenient to fiscal consolidation head (translated into plain language: the cuts) that is upon us. For example, here said that not all educational expenses are equal, and here and here we show that we knew before Elena Salgado officials’ salaries would be cut and suggested that a cut is not equal for all. Unfortunately, not much attention has made us, so we repeat it’s worth. For example, a few days ago we learned that the Prince Felipe Research Center of Valencia had seen its budget reduced by half, forcing an ERE to fire half the employees.

So I asked a biochemist friend tell me what you think of this story. This is what he replied: “The IPPC was born with the idea of ​​creating a major research institute in Valencia and he could collect excellent researchers in the area and of course foreigners. It happens that in the Levante area although there are some excellent research groups, there is either a center or medical college can say that is a global standard. Excellence is based, as in many places in individual laboratories, rather than specific sites. The construction of the institute coincided with the era of fashion / controversy over stem cell research, Bernat Soria the confrontation with the ministry and the restrictions it had in the U.S. for this work. Taking advantage of the wave, created a project to strengthen the groups in Spain stem cell research, one led by Bernat Soria Andalusia, one in Catalonia led by Izpisúa-Belmonte (CMRB) and third in Valencia in the IPPC. For these three centers contributed or state level provides funding to assist in its operation.

The institute was built with many mistakes certainly, with many square meters of laboratories, equipment in some cases slightly adjusted to the needs (for example, has the only public laboratory for surgery in monkeys, with built-in ICU, and nobody works in monkeys) and especially without the expectation that not only a matter of building and purchase equipment, you have to pay maintenance to subsidize groups renew equipment (millions of euros if you want to be competitive). As the stem cell priority was made a great signing Miodrag Stojkovic researcher and devoted significant resources to this area (basically one of the three buildings are devoted to this).

The other research groups arrived they were a little flurry, the bulk coming from the Biomedical Research FundaciónValenciana to which were added new signings from different institutions. Despite the errors, the IPPC is a center that is good and sometimes excellent research: they have some very good publications. It’s a shame that have torpedoed this way because it was or is a school of the future. Building a reputation is difficult, just seconds to destroy it and rebuild it even more difficult.

IPPC lacks what many institutions lack a public setting, a system of peer review evaluation, external committees and executive objectives with real ability. Basically in the IPPC are some very good research groups and others do not. The process followed by managers and politicians is absolutely lethal for the institution and should have been done with much more objective criteria to the scientific level. They needed to invest rooms in having created a true evaluation committee much prestige that its decision could not be questioned. Neither is that researchers fail to work overnight, I have to leave at least a year to close the lab and to find alternatives. Especially that knowledge is not lost, reagents, animals that have in their labs, now that’s a real waste of public money.