FAPESP's Scientific Director speaks in Washington about science in São Paulo, Brazil

Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz spoke at a forum organized by the AAAS, where he stressed the importance of international collaboration in research.

By Heitor Shimizu, in Washington

Agência FAPESP – Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, FAPESP’s Scientific Director, was one of the speakers at the annual Forum on Science & Technology Policy, held in Washington, DC, on April 30-May 1, 2015, and organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

This was the 40th edition of the forum, which is hosted by the AAAS every year to discuss the present and future of science and technology (S&T) policy. Held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in the capital of the United States, the forum was attended mostly by scientists and representatives of universities, research institutions and government agencies that fund or do research.

Other speakers included John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science & Technology and Director, White House Office of S&T Policy; France Córdova, Director, National Science Foundation (NSF); and Flavia Schlegel, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Brito Cruz spoke about the research produced in São Paulo State, which, “since the 1930s, has maintained a significant effort to develop a system capable of creating science and technology.”

The result of this effort, he said, “is that today 44% of the science produced in Brazil, measured by the number of scientific articles published by researchers in Brazil, comes from São Paulo State. Some 14,000 PhDs are awarded in Brazil each year, 45% by universities in São Paulo State. Moreover, in contrast with other Brazilian states, São Paulo invests almost twice as much in research as the federal government.”

Brito Cruz stressed that the success of the research produced in São Paulo State is largely due to FAPESP, “a public foundation with the mission of supporting research in all knowledge areas.”

FAPESP’s origins share at least one aspect with US counterparts, he added. “In 1947, influenced by Vannevar Bush’s report Science: The Endless Frontier, a group of scientists successfully lobbied the São Paulo State Assembly to include in the state’s new constitution, drafted that year, a clause requiring the state government to fund scientific research through a foundation set up for this purpose and mandatorily allocating 0.5% of the state’s tax revenues to its budget. In 1989, this allocation was raised to 1%,” Brito Cruz said.

“As a result, FAPESP enjoys stability and autonomy, so it can develop 15- or 20-year programs, for example. Since its creation, FAPESP has built up substantial reserves, which generate sufficient financial income for annual investment in research to correspond to between 120% and 200% of the budget allocated by the state,” he added.

“It’s also important to note that the legislation establishing FAPESP prohibited it from spending more than 5% of its budget on administration, including salaries. This requirement guarantees that 95% of its budget is invested in research.”

Brito Cruz spoke next about FAPESP’s procedures for analyzing the proposals that it receives. “In 2014, we received some 25,000 research proposals, and we’re proud of having analyzed each one within 65 days on average. The success rate averaged 45%,” he said.

He also outlined the foundation’s investment strategy, starting with scholarships. “Each month, FAPESP disburses funds to some 11,000 people with scholarships so that they can work on research projects. It’s very important for São Paulo State and Brazil to train and prepare the next generation of scientists. We must increase the numbers of our scientists,” he said.

“Another strategic funding line is what we call academic research, i.e., research initiated by scientists. They tell us what they want to investigate. They submit proposals, which are analyzed and, if approved, funded. We do this through a range of programs, such as the Research, Innovation & Diffusion Centers (RIDCs), inspired by the NSF’s Science & Technology Centers (STCs). In our case, RIDCs are funded for 11 years to develop basic or applied research focusing on specific themes and must transfer technology to industry or society, as well as disseminating science to the general public. We’re currently funding 17 of these centers.”

Most significant collaborations

Brito Cruz then described FAPESP’s other research funding modalities, such as Thematic Projects, for large projects lasting up to five years, and the Young Investigators in Emerging Centers Program, “which offers young researchers from anywhere in the world a chance to embark on a career at a university in São Paulo State.”

“This often involves more than US$1 million in funding because the researcher sets up a laboratory,” he said. “To date, we’ve brought more than a thousand of these young scientists to São Paulo State, and each year, we bring 70 to 100 more.”

Brito Cruz also spoke about the research support initiatives undertaken by FAPESP in partnership with the industrial sector. “We’re working with more than 100 companies as partners on research support projects, offering grants for two, five or ten years. For example, we’ve established Engineering Research Centers with Peugeot Citröen, GSK and BG Group, as well as Brazil’s Natura,” he said.

Another important aspect of FAPESP’s strategy stressed by Brito Cruz is its support for research done by small business. “We have a program that’s similar to the NSF’s Small Business Innovation Research Program,” he said. “We supply financial aid for more than a thousand small firms to research new products or services.”

All of these activities explain the magnitude of São Paulo State’s scientific production. “Researchers in the state produce more scientific articles per year than in any other Latin American country,” he said.

Brito Cruz also highlighted the importance of the help with international networking that FAPESP gives to São Paulo’s scientists via cooperation agreements with other research funding agencies, universities, research institutions and companies in many different countries.

“We’re very interested in research collaboration, but our strategy isn’t just based on exchanges of people. We also want to enable researchers to design proposals collaboratively, to write them together and to work together to have them approved so that they can then collaborate on the research proper,” he said. “We do value exchanges of scientists, and we fund them, but we want to see a more significant level of collaboration in research.”

Allan Bromley Memorial Lecture

On April 29, Brito Cruz delivered the Allan Bromley Memorial Lecture at the Elliott School of International Affairs, also in Washington, DC. He focused on the challenges to the S&T system’s growth and further qualification in São Paulo State and Brazil.

Since 2005, George Washington University and the University of Ottawa have organized a series of annual lectures in memory of Canadian-born physicist D. Allan Bromley, who played a critical role in S&T policy under the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations.