She has just been appointed as president of the Association of Young Researchers of Tenerife (Jinte) for the next two years, have you been a member for a long time?
I joined in 2020 when they called one of their congresses. But I got more involved in it during the organization of the last congress. It was then when, making use of my knowledge, I carried out Design work and helped in visual communication and the experience of the meeting itself.
Has the Association helped you to face the pre-doctoral stage?
When you start your research career at a pre-doctoral level and, at least, in the area of arts and humanities, you find out about being able to access research late. It seems that it is not a professional path that they show you that you can access. Once you know it and consider it as an option, you enroll and then you don’t know what to do. I started without knowing anything about this world, not even that I could finance this stage. Now I am in my third year of thesis and I think that having been in the Association has given me knowledge that those who start this career are unaware of.
What are your goals as president of Jinte for the next two years?
After a few meetings, our team has focused on improving the association’s own communication, both external and internal. We have already made an effort in network communication and also in renewing our website. Now we also want to focus on communication via email. This year also marks the tenth anniversary of the Association, and we are planning to hold a social event among the associates.
In these ten years, Jinte has become a key element for university and research policies. What is it like to take over from an Association that has become so important?
Despite the fact that the members of the candidacy did not know each other at the time of presenting ourselves, the truth is that for the moment I am very happy. We all get along very well and there is a good atmosphere. In addition, it is a Board of Directors made up of a diversity of areas, something that is very important in the pre-doctoral stage.
This year there has been a lot of movement around the resolution of the contracts Catalina Ruiz del Government of the Canary Islandsboth due to lack of financing and its scale, what is the latest news you have in this regard?
It is assumed that they are going to publish a new call for contracts to compensate for the one that did not come out between November and December 2022 and that, perhaps, this will have some extra contract as compensation in the next call. From the Canary Islands Research Agency (Aciisi) they have explained to us that the reason for the delays in the call has to do with the transit of the 2021-2027 budgets. However, we believe that they should have made some public communication, because they have left many people destitute who hoped to obtain that. We at Jinte have fought, and continue to do so, to remove the requirement from these contracts that the applicant be enrolled in a doctorate. It makes us lose at least a year of PhD.
But the date of this new publication is close to the regional elections.
Well, by promises other than it. It is good that there are regional contracts, but we believe that the conditions of pre-doctoral researchers can continue to be improved. Our conditions force us to be mileuristas for four years without being able to enter anything else. In our contract it says that we cannot have another income and they do not let us collect more than 60% of our professional category –75% the last year–. It also depends on how much personal income tax is withheld from you. Last year was a big surprise when many predoc With a contract from the Canarian Investigation Agency, we made the statement and they asked us for more than half of our salary because they were withholding only 6% from us. In the end, despite having a contract, asking for government aid for rent, forcing your families to continue supporting you financially or you find yourself in the situation of not being able to become independent at 32 years of age.
One of the biggest criticisms that has been leveled from Jinte in recent years has been the operation of the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna (ULL), what happened?
The Doctoral School has had difficulties in the last term. Perhaps the most visible for the students have been the communication problems, but all of this stems from an administrative problem. There is only one person working and processing the requests of all those registered. Previous appointments are given for a month, they do not answer the phone, emails take a long time to answer. I have seen colleagues who wanted to read the thesis and it took them six months to get them to do the paperwork to do so. We understand that the problem lay in the lack of personnel, but a solution must be found.
Do you think the situation will improve with the new rectory team of the ULL?
From Jinte we met before the elections with both candidacies, both Rosa Aguilar’s and Francisco García’s. We communicated to them the needs that we were seeing and both committed to renovating the Doctoral School completely. We hope that there will be changes and that news is coming. The vice-rector for research has shown us a willingness to dialogue.
