DEU NA NATURE: PESQUISADORES BRASILEIROS REAGEM CONTRA OS CORTES NO ORÇAMENTO

NATURE | FROM SCIDEV.NET
Brazilian researchers protest budget cuts
Science, technology and innovation spending will fall by 20%.
07 March 2012
RIO DE JANEIRO
An article from SciDev.Net
Science agencies in Brazil have voiced concern at the government's decision to cut the science, technology and
innovation (ST&I) budget by nearly a fifth.
The US$3.8 billion (6.7 billion Brazilian reals) Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MSTI) budget for
2012 — which had already been approved by Congress — was cut last month (15 February) by around US$850
million, as part of efforts to cut the overall budget by US$31 billion.
Funding for science increased year on year throughout the eight-year presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
whose time in office was characterised by strong support for science.
But the ministry's budget has now shrunk for a second year in a row under the new president, Dilma Rousseff, despite promises to continue her predecessor's policies.
Overall funding now stands at around a third of what it was in 2010 — a worrying trend, according to Luiz Davidovich, director of
the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
"Last year's reduction could have been seen as an 'accident' — reflecting the government's intention to balance the budget in the
context of the global economic crisis. But a second cut starts to look like government policy," he told SciDev.Net.
The Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) and the Brazilian Society of Physics (SBF) have both sent public
letters of protest to the government.
The president of the SBPC, Helena Nader, told SciDev.Net that Rousseff is giving contradictory messages about her government's
Brazilian scientists are concerned by President Dilma
Rousseff's second year of budget cuts.
Nader said Rousseff had highlighted the importance of ST&I in the country's 'Major Plan', issued in August 2011, and again when appointing Marco Antonio Raupp as
Brazil's new science minister in January of this year.
"In spite of that, the budget has been significantly cut back — and our understanding is that the president reviews all such cuts," said Nader.
In its public note of protest, the SBF said it was concerned and disappointed at the decision to impose fresh cuts at a time of
increasing gross domestic product (GDP).
Davidovich and Nader said the budget cuts will affect productivity, and make Brazil less attractive to scientists — possibly
exacerbating brain drain.
"What successful researcher would want to exchange a country with a stable investment for a country where they do not know what
is going to happen next month?" Nader said.


Nature doi:10.1038/nature.2012.10187
This article was originally published by SciDev.Net on 6 March 2012.