Scientist writes farewell letter to prime minister

Last week, astrophysicist Amaya Moro-Martín published an open letter to the Spanish prime minister, attracting a great deal of attention and generating some 2,000 comments and 75,000 Facebook likes. Here is her letter in English published in the Guardian.

Dear Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Taking advantage of the summer break, and to minimise the costs of my imminent transatlantic move, I'm clearing out my office at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and I wanted to return to you a few documents that I will no longer need.

First, the official certificate of having met the requirements of the Programme for the Promotion, Incorporation and Intensification of Research Activities (the I3 Programme). I appreciate the nice gesture from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness but I don't see how the concepts ‘promotion’, ‘incorporation’ and ‘intensification’ make sense in the context of the current state of research in Spain (nor indeed the idea of ‘research activity’, beyond a minimal level). Thanks anyway for officially confirming that I am capable of doing research; it is far better not to trust the feedback of the scientific community…
Full report on the Guardian site