This report of the National R&D+I Plan Monitoring Committee (2004- 2007) was prepared in the context of the Integral Monitoring and Evaluation System (SISE), which envisages this Plan, and the activities carried out in 2004 thereunder have been taken into account as the first year of execution. The objective is to formulate recommendations for policy makers that are taken into consideration when implementing future scientific and technological actions.

This new edition maintains a similar structure to that of previous years, providing quantitative information about the public budgets assigned in the National Budget to research and innovation, internal R&D expenditure, human resources and results relating to scientific research and technological development in Spain.

The Work Programme is used as a dynamic updating tool both for the content of the National Plan for R&D&I as well as for the objectives, priorities and measures funded by the General Government Administration of Spain. The Programme also provides information on other measures that promote R&D&I which are not awarded through a public call or on a competitive basis, or information on calls that remain open all year round. The latter is the case with business projects in R&D&I that are funded by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI). The aim of the Work Programme is to become a useful guide that facilitates a greater and more effective participation and interrelationship between the agents of the Spanish Science and Technology System (both the directors as well as the beneficiaries of grants), through the identification and description of R&D&I activities planned to be organised over the following year. 

In the new SISE edition, in addition to monitoring and evaluating the results of the activities and programmes financed during 2004 and 2005, the programmes of the National R&D+I Plan were analysed from the point of view of participants, determining their degree of satisfaction with the existing tools and modes, management procedures, IT tools, and other aspects thereof. As such, through the National Evaluation and Foresight Agency (ANEP) and FECYT, a survey was implemented aimed at researchers who participated in the activities envisaged in the National R&D+I Plan 2004-2007. The results of the survey are presented in this report, with the information being accompanied by graphs that facilitate and enrich the vision of the whole.

This report includes and combines both bibliometric (production and impact) and socioeconomic indicators with the aim of providing a sufficiently complete and schematic description of the state and evolution of the science system for the period from 1990 to 2004. The indicators presented in this study were prepared from recognised sources (as benchmarks) internationally, including the “Web of Science”, developed by Thomson Scientific. The aim is, therefore, to provide an analysis of the situation of the volume of scientific production on a national and regional level and within the international comparative framework, as well as distribution and thematic visibility of production in territorial, institutional and research potential terms. As a new feature in this edition we have included an analysis of indicators on the trends and patterns existing in relation to gender and scientific communication.