Nature: Last week, scientists in 19 cities across Spain gathered to protest against the governments’ budget cuts, failure to supply promised funds, and other actions that they view as attacks on the scientific infrastructure of the country. Since 2009, the government has cut its science budget by 39%, and in 2011 it eliminated the science ministry. Protests and open letters have been organized several times since March 2012. Estimates suggest that one-third of projects funded in 2013 by the National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation have not received any funds this year, and that another one-third likely won’t be refunded in 2014. The nation has also only partially paid its dues as a member of both the European Science Foundation and the European Space Agency. The protests and open letters have been organized by the Letter for Science coalition, which includes most of the main research organizations in the country.

Nature: South Africa spent just under 21 billion rand ($2.2 billion) on research and development in the 2009–10 budget year, according to a recently released survey. That amount was down 86 million rand from the previous year, the first drop in spending in more than a decade. And for the third straight year, spending was down as a percentage of GDP. Perhaps even more significantly, private investment in R&D in the same period dropped 9.7% from the previous year. Science minister Derek Hanekom attributes the federal funding decrease to the global financial crisis and a failed 2006 tax rebate. He also points to the shelving of an experimental nuclear reactor project that did not receive necessary private funding. But he thinks that since 2010, the country has turned the corner. Despite the reduction in spending, the number of papers published by South African researchers has increased as has the number of citations received. Critics in South African industry, however, worry that the loss of funding will have a longer lasting impact than the short term numbers indicate.