Abandoning science and underinvestment pulls Brazil out of the twenty-first century.

São Paulo – Faced with the scarcity of investments in science and technology in Brazil, the National Association of Postgraduate Students (ANPG) submitted a petition with more than 51,000 signatures requesting an adjustment in the value of the postgraduate scholarships to the President of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Evaldo Villa, who pledged to take the case to the National Congress.

According to UNESCO, Brazil has about 888 researchers per million inhabitants. South Korea leads with 7,980 points; New Zealand, which has 5,578 and Germany, has 5,212 researchers per million inhabitants. This data, contained in the new 2021 UNESCO Science Report, shows how investing in science has not been a priority.

According to Flavia Calle, head of the ANPG, the lack of investment in science means the country is not technologically independent and dependent on other nations. “The world is increasingly divided between countries that produce science and technology and those that only consume. Brazil, which has failed to invest in science, is giving up its technological autonomy. This autonomy depends on having minds, that is, specialists and highly specialized infrastructure,” he said, in an interview With reporter Larissa Bohrer, from Radio Brazil Current.

Modification in bags

Without adjustments in research grants for graduate students since 2013, master’s and doctoral students face numerous difficulties in sustaining their research. Such is the case of Daniel Valley, a doctoral student in geology at the University of the South Pacific. According to the graduate student, who has moved to the capital of São Paulo in order to get closer to the university, half of the monthly amount of the scholarship is used only to pay the rent. The rest goes to food and INSS. Income supplement add-ons, which are also rare, are for secondary purposes, such as shopping for clothes.

“the their own account That I get is not fixed. When that money comes in, it comes out as fast as it comes in. I choose to live near the university, which makes the rent more expensive and uses half the scholarship for that. “It is difficult to live here in Brazil and it is not worth taking a postgraduate course in the country,” the student said.

Masters and PhD scholarships from Capes or CNPq, bodies associated with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology, which fund the research, are currently R$1,500 and R$2,200 per month. Since the last adjustment, in March 2013, the inflation rate as measured by the International Institute of Statistics’ National Consumer Price Index (INPC) has been 63.47%. This means that if scholarships were adjusted only to correct for period inflation, the amounts would be R$2,452.10 for master’s students and R$3,596.41 for doctoral students.

However, agencies have already announced that the increase made may only be between 20% and 30%. The ANPG chief explains that while this value is not ideal, it is indeed an important milestone. In our layoff week, in October of last year, some agencies announced the readjustment. It is less than the ideal value, but it is an important measure, which removes the low value that we had in exchanges value,” he added.

appreciation of science

Daniel comments on this by saying that research has never been evaluated with this value, considering the current epidemiological situation in the world. He emphasizes that research in the field of natural sciences is important, for example, for its application in everyday life and for the avoidance of landslides or floods.

“We see every day the importance of taking a vaccine and it has been created through research. In my field of natural sciences, the institute’s research can be applied to other occasions, such as preventing floods in Bahia. Research is important and should be related to public administration, which has not been done,” he explained. make it.”

For Calle, this year’s general election is key to repositioning the flag as a hero in Brazil. “The elections are an opportunity to discuss the project. It is necessary to rebuild the country with the flag at the center. In Chile, the winning candidate put this issue at the center of his project, and the same has happened in the United States and other countries. Brazil cannot walk away from this reality and this must be The elections represent a new path.”