Since Spain's accession to the European Comminuty, both Spanish companies and the scientific community have been actively participating in the R+D European Programmes -the Franmework Programme, EUREKA, European Space Agency, etc.- which has had favourable repercussions on its competitiveness and position within the European Community. Therefore, the new international framework and the aforementioned accomplishments aimed at promoting R+D are bringing about a substantial change in the Spanish scientific-technological industrial System. Total expedinture in Spain for R+D has multiplied by four over the 1982-1992 period. It is estimated that in 1992, 509,000 million pesetas were spent on R+D. The promotion of R+D activities necessarily involves the concession of operational funds. The year the Science Law was passed, the State's General Budget marked 84,000 million pesetas for R+D, while in 1992 that same figure rose to 312,200 million pesetas, which represented a global increase of 270%. The funds that the Central Adminisation reserves for the system have stimulated private spending and Spanish companies have also incremented their contribution to global financing -around 225,000 million pesetas in 1992- and have carried out R+D to the value of 294,000 million pesetas, which represent almos 60% of total spending, and the general tendency reflects a rise, increasingly brin ging Spain in line with the model observed in neighbouring industrialized countries.

In 1982 there were the equivalent of 18,700 researchers working full time in Spain; by 1990, this 1982 figure has doubled, reaching 37,500. Approximately 70% of the people involved in research are connected with universities and other public institutions, and 30% are found in public and private companies. This proportion, still inferior to that of other neighbouring countries (50:50), is gradually balancing out, chiefly owing to the country's immense educational effort -there are around 11,000 scholarship research students- which is principally directed at fields of potential interest for industry.

An important part of Spanish research in carried on in 42 universities (37 public and 5 private) and in public research agencies such as the Superior Council for Scientific Research (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas) and the Astrophysic Institute in the Canary Islands (IAC) (depending on the Ministry of Education and Science), the National Institute of Agrarian Research (INIA), the Spanish Oceanographic Institute (IEO) (depending on the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food), the Centre of Energetic, Environmental and the Technological Research (CIEMAT) and the Technological and Geomine Institute (depending on the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism) and the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) (depending on the Ministry of Defence). Among the former, the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), which employs 7,000 persons, 2,000 of whom are scientists, is of great importance, and unlike the others, is a multidisciplinary institute.

Spanish companies are reacting positively and with determination to the challenge of incorporating their own technology as an indispensable factor in order to raise their competitiveness both at home and internationally, to the level of Europe, especially taking into consideration the reality of the European Community's single market since 1993. During the period 1982-1992 the Spanish has increased their R+D budget by an average accumilative annual rate of 20% which represents one of the largest increases among the OECD countries.

Public companies, that carry out approximately 20% of the expenditure in R+D and employ 16% of the R+D personnel within the business and industry sector (INI, INH, Telefonica, RENFE), generating their own technology stand out above all in the defense, aeronautic and communications fields, among others. In private companies, the most dynamic sectors correspond to the pharmaceutical and chemical products, software, electronic equipment and transfortation equipment, etc.