Scientists claim that the Bolsonaro government was terrible for scientific research in the country

It has never been so difficult to be a scientist in Brazil, according to researchers mostly heard by the program’s report Fantastic from Rede Globo. In the report that aired last Sunday (16), all ears categorically stated that the last 4 years, during the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro, were the hardest and heaviest for science. The increase in the feeling of the population against science, that it is of no use, and, according to the researchers, there is pride in being ignorant on the part of the ex-president’s followers.

Bolsonaro’s strong propaganda against it made a large part of the population averse to science, thus generating, on the part of the past government, a cut in funding for science never seen before in Brazil.

Research in Brazil is mostly funded with public money, either state or federal, and encompasses about 95% of projects. To encourage research, there is a federal body called the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, the CNPQ, which offers scholarships to students and researchers, from undergraduate to postdoctoral, but since 2019 scholarships awarded to postgraduate students have fallen by about of 53%, from 8600 scholarships to 4021. Master’s scholarships in 2019 were granted 8400, in 2022 this number was 6759, a drop of 20%.

There were 10 years without readjustments, but at the end of the Bolsonaro government, in his package of goodies to try for re-election, there was a small increase. The cuts come from 2016, during the Michel Temer government.

Sought by the report, the former Minister of Science and Technology and current Senator of the Republic, astronaut Marcos Pontes defended himself by saying that “resources for the MCTI have greatly increased from 2018 to 2022” is that “We managed to pay all scholarships in 2019 without delaying any day and without cutting any scholarship”, complementing that “during the pandemic, we had an extra 1 Bi for vaccine actions and other projects” It is “To compensate for the low budget of the Union, elbowing with other ministries, we seek two more sources, private resources and release from the National Fund for the Development of Science and Technology, the FNDCT”.

With this crisis and the lack of investment in research in recent years, there is a flight of students after graduation in the country due to lack of vacancies and research projects. Many go abroad to look for opportunities and so the country is losing the best professionals. They allege that they have no perspective of returning to the country, since, in addition to being paid on time, the research projects have not yet been fully resumed by the new government, which completed 100 days last week.

Another important complaint made by the scientists is the lack of equipment maintenance, whether from the most basic, such as air conditioning, to the most complex, such as microscopes, freezers for cooling at very low temperatures, and inputs. Teachers sometimes had to resort to crowdfunding among people who would like and could help or take it out of their own pockets to have the minimum to carry out their work.

The allegation by the previous government is that the parts are expensive and there is only technical assistance outside the country.

The professor of the chemistry department at UFPR, Aldo Zarbin, states that ” if we have a continued investment, the difference we would make would be absurd”. Regarding the negligence of the government of Jair Bolsonaro, the current president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science, SBPC, Renato Janine Ribeiro says that “The Bolsonaro government left a giant challenge, as they will have to rebuild a series of institutions, or behaviors and habits that were detonated”.

Professors, students and researchers are waiting for the Lula government to resume projects that have stopped and new ones to emerge, in addition to better recognition from them. According to the professors, it is essential that there is dialogue with the population so that this anti-science feeling is minimized and they start to support more young scientists.

Featured Photo: Scientists working on projects. Playback/Twitter.