Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 215: Chapter 154: Acquisition Plan and Talent Recruitment (Part 3)

But this is an issue we can’t avoid. Spain’s decline has persisted for a long time, so Spanish naturally hasn’t been warmly welcomed in Europe.

Initially, we can only provide translators for these technical talents and senior engineers to ensure their work and communication proceed smoothly.

Later, we can only establish language learning classes for them to help them master Spanish faster. After all, these talents recruited will eventually serve Spain; if they don’t learn Spanish, should Spaniards learn their language?

In this respect, Portugal’s importance is evident. Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, essentially two evolutions of the same language.

The Portuguese and Spaniards can understand each other. Comparatively, Portuguese people are more capable of understanding Spanish; Spaniards need to listen carefully to understand Portuguese.

This creates a situation where Portuguese can easily live in Spain. There are virtually no language barriers, highlighting the unique relationship between Portugal and Spain as parts of the Iberian Peninsula.

Due to this, Prime Minister Prim, upon expressing the need for talent in the industry department, specifically instructed the first stop for talent acquisition should be Portugal.

No matter if these talents lost their jobs due to the companies they were in, as long as they’re Portuguese talents, we’ll recruit them all first.

As neighbors on the Iberian Peninsula, Spain is not afraid of offending Portugal. Portugal can only tremble in front of Spain, and the strength disparity between them is very large.

Although there aren’t many senior engineers in Portugal, there are still outstanding technical workers and ordinary engineers.

Prime Minister Prim’s opinion is to recruit batches of talents as they come, as Portugal’s development doesn’t require such talent and they’re destined not to flourish.

Soon, under Prime Minister Prim’s request, various departments jointly submitted a talent demand list heavier than the acquisition plan.

In this talent demand list, each department expressed its need for talent, making the entire list several inches thick.

Spain currently needs two types of talents most. The first type is skilled technical workers and engineers from various industries for industrial development.

The second type is researchers, or scientists, whether they’re in physics, chemistry, biomedical research, steel smelting, oil extraction, or refining—Spain’s government has one attitude: all are welcome, and the doors are always open to these talents.

For attracting research talents, Prime Minister Prim and Carlo have reached a consensus.

First, Spain severely lacks such research talents. In later years, Spain had no winners in physics or chemistry Nobel Prizes, showing its shortage in these types of talents.

To express the importance of these talents, both those recruited by the Royal Family and the government will be uniformly enrolled in the Royal Academy of Sciences, organized by Carlo.

The Royal Academy of Sciences has been established for several years, with several large laboratories built for research in physics, chemistry, biomedical science, mechanical design, and chemical engineering, freely open to all scientists in the Royal Academy.

If they dislike competing for time in these large laboratories, for scientists of adequate rank, the Royal Academy provides private laboratories, ensuring they can conduct their research anytime, anywhere.

Yes, after years of development, the Royal Academy of Sciences has also developed detailed rank classifications.

Carlo highly values scientists and naturally prioritizes the development of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Although the Royal Academy of Sciences is merely an academic research institution, it wields considerable power.

All scientists joining the Royal Academy of Sciences are called Academy Members, enjoying basic salary plus research rewards and employment incentives.

First is the basic salary. There are three levels of academy members in the Royal Academy of Sciences; First-level, Second-level, and Third-level members.

First-level members have a basic annual salary of 1,800 Pesseta, Second-level members have 3,200 Pesseta, and Third-level members have 4,500 Pesseta.

Though the basic salary doesn’t rank top across Europe, it’s a substantial gap compared to ordinary people, being several times higher.

Moreover, basic salary is merely part of the Academy Members’ income, not even the main portion.

Besides basic salary, when academy members achieve research outcomes, they can receive a share of the contribution from their findings, up to 5%.

Though a twentieth share isn’t large, it depends on what the research outcome is. Like advancing a pharmaceutical product in biology, it could mean billions or even tens of billions of Pesseta.

In such cases, even a mere 5% share can propel an academy member into millionaire status.

Lastly, regarding the income from positions. All scientists of the Royal Academy are uniformly called members, even the Academy’s president.

Though positions like the president differ in terms of power and income, no rank distinction exists.

However, there are few internal positions within the Academy; most positions relate closely to the Royal Science Academy.

Academy Members can take part-time roles in the Royal Science Academy, with the minimum being honorary professors earning 500 Pesseta.

The three income categories combined ensure that the salary level of Academy Members is comparable to or slightly exceeds the income level of senior talents in other European countries.

This gives Carlo and Prime Minister Prim confidence in attracting talents, for although scientists are passionate about research, they need to eat first.