Science invests €38.9 million to attract 37 international leaders in high-impact social research

The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the State Research Agency, has published the resolution for the 2025 ATRAE Programme call for applications, allocating €38.9 million to hire 37 leading researchers from research groups with global scientific impact in their fields. Of these, 56.7% come from research centres in the United States.

The purpose of the call is to facilitate the incorporation of established research talent with recognised international prestige who have recently completed a significant period of their professional activity abroad, in order to advance towards a more competitive Spanish R&D&I system at both the national and international levels.

The Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, said that "this programme allows us to attract excellent scientists who will contribute to building a better country for science", and referred to Spain as "a haven of democratic values in the face of science cuts by other countries".

"Researchers choose our country not only because it is attractive due to our large research centres, but also because it is a country that defends democracy".

For the first time in its three editions, the ATRAE Programme has attracted more foreign than domestic talent, with foreign nationals now representing 83% of the beneficiaries. Furthermore, 32% (12) are American, compared to 16% (5) in 2024 and none in 2023.

Funding for the programme is almost 30% higher than in the previous edition, when 30 million euros were allocated, with a 20% increase in talent attraction, as there were 31 beneficiaries in 2024.

It is worth noting that this latest call for proposals included a new feature: additional funding for researchers who were working in the United States, with an extra €200,000 per project.

An average of one million euros for research

Each researcher will receive an average of one million euros to establish themselves and develop their work and research group at a research centre or university in Spain. This year, more than 50% of the ATRAE researchers will receive €1.1 million.

The strategic areas in which they will work are Health, Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture, Climate and Environment, Digitalisation and Telecommunications, Advanced Materials and New Manufacturing Techniques; Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society, Science and Space Technologies.

Regarding the host institutions, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) will receive 29.7%, universities 48.6%, and other R&D centres the remaining 21.6%.

Commitment to job security when ATRAE funding ends

These centres and universities commit to offering job security upon completion of the three- or four-year period funded by the ATRAE Programme.

The selected researchers will be able to train predoctoral students and postdoctoral researchers, which will result in an increase in the critical mass at the various centres they join. They will, therefore, be drivers of talent and attract national and international funding.

In terms of funding by autonomous communities, 35.1% is allocated to entities in Catalonia, 29.7% to Madrid, 10.8% to Murcia, 8.1% to Galicia and the Basque Country, 5.4% to the Valencian Community, and 2.7% to Andalusia.

In this edition, a total of 254 applications were evaluated, of which 73.2% were from men and 26.8% from women, with an average age of 49. 33.5% of the applications came from people whose home country is the USA, followed by 11% from the UK and 5.1% from Germany.

Non official translation