Resumen de Recerca: una reflexió sobre el que fou, és i podria ser
Apart from a few remarkable personalities, research was in deep darkness duringthe decades preceding the first edition of Nature, use or abuse (1976). With the samespirit of transformation that imbued that book and the whole of society, a rapidlygrowing research system was progressively developed in the following decades. Thenumber of contributions to international journals has not ceased to grow. However, thesustained increase in investment suddenly declined at the end of the first decade of the21st century. The economic crisis highlighted all the weaknesses of the political,economic and social valuation of science. Today the system is richer in human capitalthan in resources. Global change should become the centre of gravity of environmentalresearch that could foster the social recognition necessary to improve research centreorganisation, to renew staff, to correct infrastructure dysfunctions and to facilitate thetransfer between the academic and professional worlds.
