Diana Morant maintains the Science and Innovation portfolio and also takes on universities

HEALTH / By Carmen Gomaro

The approval of the long-awaited Science Law has been the most outstanding achievement of the Valencian Diana Morant (Gandía, 1980), who will not only repeat as head of the Ministry of Science and Innovation but also add Universities to her powers. His continuity has not been a surprise since he was one of the profiles most likely to continue in Pedro Sánchez's new cabinet.. And the trust he has in her has translated into him also commissioning universities, until now under the command of Joan Subirats, who had already announced that he would not continue in this new coalition government.

This telecommunications engineer entered the Government in the middle of the legislature, during the great renewal of the Executive that Sánchez carried out on July 10, 2021. The until then mayor of Gandía left her position in the city council the next day, which she had held since 2015, to replace the astronaut Pedro Duque at the head of a ministry to which she arrived ten years after entering politics, since she began as a socialist councilor in the City Hall of his hometown in May 2011.

NEW CABINET
Profiles. The list of the 22 ministers of the new Government of Pedro Sánchez

The list of the 22 ministers of the new Government of Pedro Sánchez

Spain. Sánchez boasts a “high political profile” to “publicly explain” the agreements in a legislature for “territorial cohesion”

Sánchez boasts a “high political profile” to “publicly explain” the agreements in a legislature for “territorial cohesion”

Although her name was mentioned as a possible socialist candidate for the Mayor of Valencia in the last municipal elections – something that did not sit well with the PSPV-PSOE -, Morant ultimately remained in the central government as a minister and in recent months as an acting minister.

During the 28 months in which she has been at the head of her ministry, Diana Morant has managed the largest science budget that has ever been in Spain thanks to an increase in the money allocated from Spain, but above all to the injection that the European Union cohesion funds. Thus, for 2023 the budget of his ministry reached a total of 3,991 million euros, 4% more than the previous year.. Not counting European funds, the national budget grew by 20% compared to 2022 (within that total item, the national item amounted to 2,610 million).

Upon joining Sánchez's cabinet in the middle of the legislature, the Valencian continued with a good part of the projects initiated by Pedro Duque, who had worked intensely to carry out the law of Science, Technology and Innovation, although finally the norm was approved during Morant's term. On February 18, 2022, the Council of Ministers gave the green light to this law, which was definitively approved by the plenary session of Congress on August 25, 2022.

The norm contemplates the indefinite hiring of researchers and protects stable and growing financing of public R-D&I with the objective of reaching 1.25% of GDP in 2030 – and 3% including private investment -, of in accordance with the Science and Innovation Pact. Since the Science Law was approved a year ago, efforts have been aimed at its implementation, as it is a very complex text, and at combating bureaucracy in the Spanish scientific system.

Like Duque, the minister has promoted the space sector with the creation of a Spanish Space Agency, which was announced in May 2021 and was formally established last April, with headquarters in Seville.. Its creation is an old demand of the sector that involves several ministries, in addition to Science.. The Aerospace PERTE is underway, which will mobilize around 4,533 million euros between 2021 and 2025 (with a contribution from the public sector of around 2,193 million euros and a private investment of around 2,340 million), according to data from the Ministry.

More money has also been dedicated to the European Space Agency (ESA), which has contributed to the selection of two Spanish astronauts during the last promotion, announced a year ago: Pablo Álvarez as the main astronaut and Sara García in the reserve corps).

During his mandate, the launch of the National Volcanology Center in the Canary Islands or a maximum security biological containment laboratory in Madrid has been announced..

12 years in politics

Morant finished her studies in Telecommunications Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in 2007 and before entering politics she worked as a development engineer in the R&D department of the company Alhena Ingeniería between 2008 and 2011 and taught a Home Automation course at the company SGS Tecnos. When he entered the Gandía City Council in 2011, the Popular Party governed. In 2015, Morant headed the PSOE list, which was the second most voted, with seven councilors compared to 12 from the PP, but he was able to govern thanks to the support of the five councilors from the Més Gandia coalition and one from Ciudadanos.. In the 2019 elections, it maintained the mayor's office (it was the party with the most votes, with 11 councilors to which it added the four from the Compromís Més Gandia Unida coalition).

Coinciding with her time as mayor of Gandía, she was a deputy in the Provincial Council of Valencia (2015-17), member of the Tourism Council of the Generalitat Valenciana (since June 2015), member of the Spain Convention Bureau (2016-2019). , member of the Territorial Council of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces and of the board of directors of the Port Authority of Valencia.