Motivated by the covid-19 crisis and the foreseeable budget cuts in the coming years, its objective is to maintain the scientific resources needed by researchers.

The Spanish Board of Consortia and Purchase Groups, which includes CBUG, CBUA, BUCLE, Consorcio Madroño, CSUC, UNIRIS, G9, REBIUN and CSIC, wants to state:

Its gratitude for the support that scientific publishers have offered to the academic and scientific institutions of our country, opening some of their content and collections during the initial stages of the global health crisis.

We would also want to express our great concern about the economic challenge, of immeasurable consequences, that the crisis of the covid-19 will entail in our institutions and the difficulty of maintaining in the future the same levels of scientific information that we are offering our institutions nowadays.
From this moment on, the institutions we represent face the challenging task of analyzing and examining which digital information resources they will be able to afford, in order to keep maximum access to scientific information, considering the severe budgetary demands that they will undoubtedly have to face.
Thus, given the situation of economic uncertainty we are facing, we declare that:

• Proposals for renovations in 2021 and subsequent years must take into account a budget reduction scenario in the Spanish system of universities and research organizations.

• All renewals of the current agreements, both signed by the consortiums and by each institution at the individual level, must be aligned with this situation, so in no case can they imply a price increase.

• The economic conditions offered must be the same for all the institutions represented by this Board.

• In order to maintain the spirit of cooperation and mandatory transparency of this Board, we will share among us all proposals sent by publishers, and we will avoid accepting unequal conditions or any condition that does not apply to the same extent to other members.

With this statement we appeal for an effort from the publishers that allows the renewal of the current agreements. In the event that the renewal proposals do not conform sufficiently to the expressed demands, we could be forced to cancel them due to the impossibility of their assumption by our budgets.
This statement is not the result of a negotiation strategy. It comes as a consequence of the budget crisis that we are facing. We consider that it is the only possible alternative if we want to maintain each and every one of the information resources that make up our digital libraries.

The statement can be downloaded in Spanish or English version.