The miracle of R+D+i at the University of the Balearic Islands
This month of August, the fall of the University of the Balearic Islands from the top 1,000 positions of the 2026 world university ranking by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy (ARWU) was made public. It is, obviously, painful for all of us who love the institution, and especially for those of us who dedicate our professional lives to it. That the UIB disappears from a showcase of the global academic elite after having been there since 2017 is surprising, and even more so when 30 other universities from the State appear there. A primary external factor that explains this is the accelerated entry of Chinese universities, which displaces institutions from all over the world regardless of how the research they conduct has evolved. It is part of the cause.
Let us remain calm. The research conducted at the UIB is excellent and improves as it is slowly provided with the minimum human and material resources to compete with guarantees. Three internal findings demonstrate and explain the evolution of the UIB in the ARWU.
People matter. The entry of the UIB into the ARWU in 2017 is explained by the sustained impact of important publications by the Plant Physiology group over the last 20 years regarding the effect of climate change on photosynthesis. As a consequence, Drs. Jaume Flexas, Hipólito Medrano, Jeroni Galmés, and Miquel Ribas, in order of appearance on the list, appeared on the Clarivate list (a company providing information and analysis of research activity) of the most cited authors in the world. Due to this fact, the UIB received between 7 and 15 additional points in the ARWU, which meant that the total score of the UIB in the ARWU 2017-2024 increased by between 20 and 50%. Starting in 2023, Dr. Antoni Sureda appears in Clarivate thanks to the impact of his work on contaminants in Mediterranean marine organisms, pharmacology of natural products, and oxidative stress in nutrition. In the last year, Clarivate has not granted the mention of highly cited to any UIB researcher, leaving this indicator at zero in the ARWU 2026 for the first time in 10 years.
Size, in this case, matters. The position of Spanish universities in the ARWU largely reproduces their ranking by size. The more faculty, the better the position: the correlation is 0.76 and no other indicator predicts it better. This strong relationship is a consequence of the ranking's definition: 90% of the ARWU values absolute production without normalizing for size. The ranking does not separate quality from size: it measures volume. Indicators less sensitive to volume, such as the ARWU's own per capita production and the per capita indicators of the U-Ranking, consistently place the UIB in the top third of the Spanish university system. The fact that the UIB is not in the 2026 ARWU does not mean that we conduct research poorly. It means, above all, that there are fewer of us.
Resources matter. Four universities smaller than the UIB remain in the 2026 ARWU: Pompeu Fabra, Girona, and Rovira i Virgili, from the Catalan system, and Jaume I, from Castellón. None of these have more research staff than the UIB. All of them have more resources per researcher. If the size is equal, it is the resources that decide the position.
The problem in the Balearic Islands is absolutely not the quality of the research, the research collective, or the technicians: it is the structural investment in the system that must support it. In 2024, the Balearic Islands dedicated 0.40% of their GDP to R&D: the lowest figure in the country and less than a third of the Spanish average (1.50%). We are the last. Catalonia dedicates 1.73% to it: more than four times our relative effort. Madrid reaches 2.18%. Navarre (2.34%) and the Basque Country (2.30%) allocate even more, although they have their own tax regime that makes direct comparison difficult. And while state spending grows by 6.9%, that of the Balearic Islands suffers the largest decline in the country. The distance from leading European regions, where the 3% of GDP target has been the reference framework for years, is even greater.
We have many years of accumulated disadvantage, and this cannot be recovered with a one-off budget or in a single legislative term. The latest governments have made significant efforts that must be recognized: they have begun to rectify a situation that came from long ago. But what the R&D&I of the Balearic Islands needs is a robust social pact, expressed explicitly by all political forces: widely majority-based, stable and multi-year, capable of guaranteeing the competitiveness of our own science system. The Balearic Islands, and the UIB specifically, have a climate, a territory, and services that represent an evident competitive advantage to generate a leading international ecosystem of science, technology, and innovation. We just have to believe in it.
Because what we have today is, simply put, a miracle. The research carried out by the people who make up the UIB –researchers and technical staff– is proven to be excellent, and it is so despite the accumulated deficit that the system drags along. No country can afford to live indefinitely on a miracle. It is, therefore, a matter of turning it into the predictable result of planning: of a determined investment in top-level research.
And it is not about satisfying a consultancy that creates rankings on the other side of the world. It is about assuming, all together, that knowledge is a proven lever for social progress and the improvement of the citizens' well-being, also in the Balearic Islands. The ranking is just a thermometer. We need urgent action. At the UIB we are here, prepared and motivated to lead the progress: we just have to stop relying on miracles.
