EDITORIAL

The present government has promoted a bill for the constitutional reform of royalties; such initiative has been discussed during eight debates and was finally approved during June by the Colombian congress. This proposal must continue its due course until being discussed by the constitutional court and becoming law.

The bill has designed a general system of royalties, conceiving it as a distinct scheme to that currently being managed by the Colombian Royalties' Fund. The income presently being received by the country from subsoil exploitation will be distributed amongst all territorial entities, not just amongst the regions producing wealth from natural resources. The magnitude of these resources is important since they account for around 10 billion Colombian pesos per year and it is expected that the new system will come into force from the first of January 2012.

The expected law will establish the objectives to be achieved, the efficient use of resources and the way that they should be distributed; however, the actual bill envisages that the royalties will be assigned to social, economic and environmental development projects, and that 10% will be specifically assigned to science and technology.

Going beyond the government's justification for proposing such reform (the debate concerning the centralisation or decentralisation of resources, the execution of such royalties during the last 15 years and their implications in terms of going into greater detail about regional development, clearly involving a situation of grave inequality), this bill is aimed at investing in science and technology as a factor in Colombia's development and growth. Such investment will lead to strengthening Colombia's scientific and technological capacity, improve interaction between the pertinent actors (i.e. the Colombian Science, Technology and Innovation System - System Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación - SNCTI) and promote Colombia's participation within an international context.

COLCIENCIAS, as the state entity responsible for promoting science, technology and innovation, will perform the role of technical secretariat for these resources and the National Planning Department will act as administrative secretariat for them. National and regional human talent education/training programmes will be financed; financing projects may be transferred to financing strategic programmes. All scientific research, technological or social innovation and technological development projects to be financed must be aimed at regional development and benefitting territorial entities. The creation and consolidation of research centres, technological development centres and regional productivity centres will also be promoted.

Colombian universities will be presented with magnificent opportunities and great challenges in research, development and innovation (R&D&I), implying the implementation of investigation and innovation management systems accompanied by the definition of agendas for knowledge, strategic lines of research which must be in keeping with the emphasis of undergraduate and postgraduate academic programmes, with research groups' topics of interest, knowledge and technology transfer and, of course, each university's profile.

Such annual investment will imply, in turn, establishing a longterm Science, Technology and Innovation Plan aimed at designing strategies leading to the SNCTI's coordination with the Colombian System of Competitiveness and other systems benefitting Colombia's development and wellbeing and that of its inhabitants.

Thus for Ingeniería e Investigación, as a means of broadcasting scientific and technological knowledge, it will be most pleasing to have greater quality content, resulting from fresh research and innovative developments which merit being broadcast and receiving national and international recognition.

SONIA ESPERANZA MONROY VARELA

Vicedecana de Investigación y Extensión

Facultad de Ingeniería

Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, D. C.