barcelona

A leading physics research institute in Spain has agreed to broaden its recruitment criteria for three new posts, following a protest by one of its professors that its criteria were too narrow, and had been written to favour particular candidates.

Javier Bermejo, a professor of physics at the Institute of Structure of Matter in Madrid, says that junior staff recruited to his institute last year — a high-energy theorist, a nuclear physicist and a vibrational spectroscopist — were appointed through open and fair competition.

But he complained that, this year, his institute's recruitment committee had again identified its top priorities as being specialists in the same three fields. According to Bermejo, although institute officials claimed that “balanced development” was needed, the narrow designations reflected pressure to appoint unsuccessful applicants from the previous year.

Francisco José Balta-Calleja, the institute's director, says there were inevitably internal conflicts because “each department may seek a post for its own candidate”.

According to José Vicente García-Ramos, head of the department of vibrational spectroscopy and a member of this year's committee, one problem is that there are scientists with excellent research records in each department, either on short-term contracts or temporarily working abroad, who cannot be appointed because of insufficient posts.

Bermejo says that, in general, he applauds the CSIC's efforts to increase the number of scientific staff and diversify research in its centres (see main story). But he is concerned that local pressures contribute to “in-breeding” that may close doors to scientists trained in emerging research areas.

Such pressures, he adds, tend to come from researchers who are active in fields that are already overstaffed, but who have the power to maintain a “self-replication” process.

“My own career path to the position of professor was made possible by open competition,” says Bermejo. “Young researchers should have to apply for posts that are as general as possible, and not narrowly defined.”

The CSIC says it has long been aware of this issue. After indicating that he intended to go public with his concerns, Bermejo says he was told by Emilio Lora-Tamayo, vice-president of scientific and technological research at the CSIC, that the priorities identified by his institute's committee were too narrow, and that the CSIC accepted that this year's posts at his institute should include broader profiles.

The list of profiles was announced last week, and the posts in question are broadly defined as theoretical and experimental physics — without additional designations.