"This set of organizations aims to raise awareness of the current government about the reality of the precariousness that exists in the national scientific system and to demand that researchers who have been working, some for several decades, in the national scientific system have the right to a career," explained Romeu Videira to Lusa.

The researcher and member of the board of the National Higher Education Union (SNESup) will be in Porto today, where the conference "Paths of Knowledge: industry and the science of happiness" will take place, organized by Ciência Viva and attended by the Secretary of State for Science, Ana Paiva.

At the entrance to the Almeida Garrett Library, where the event will take place, representatives of SENSup, the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), the Association of Scientific Research Grant Holders (ABIC) of the Federation of Public Service Unions and other organizations will deliver the manifesto "Happiness was ending precariousness" to the Secretary of State.

"What we are asking for is permanent integration into careers," summarized Romeu Videira, acknowledging that the situation has improved slightly in recent years, especially with the replacement of individual post-doctoral grants with employment contracts in 2016, but precariousness continues to mark scientific research.

In the manifesto, they ask for consistent funding for the scientific employment of PhDs, a permanent funding mechanism for hiring in the scientific research career, the revocation of the status of Research Grant Holder, the end of underfunding of institutions and the permanent hiring of guest lecturers and workers who perform technical functions, science management and related functions.

"What would be fair for most researchers who have been working in precarious conditions for decades would be an extraordinary regularization of employment relationships that would allow them direct access to a career," argues the union leader.

The FCT-Tenur program, approved by the previous executive, for funding the permanent hiring of teachers and researchers, was a step forward, but "falls far short of expectations," he added, noting that institutions requested double the number of vacancies compared to what is expected to be funded.

On the other hand, Romeu Videira regretted the lack of responses from the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, stating that, on the subject, "not a word has been said so far".

The secretary-general of Fenprof had also criticized the ministry for delaying scheduling a meeting with the unions that represent higher education researchers and teachers.

"Colleagues in higher education and researchers are beginning to think that this is one of the negative consequences of the merger of the two ministries. Probably, if there were two ministries, we would have already had the first higher education meeting," said Mário Nogueira on Monday.

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