Universities and S&T institutions need continuous support, experts say

Budgetary stability is key to long-term planning and research, according to a discussion at the launch of physicist Rogério Cezar de Cerqueira Leite's autobiography.

By Elton Alisson  |  Agência FAPESP – Universities and research institutions need to be freed from bureaucracy and red tape. Support for these centers of teaching and learning must be institutionalized to guarantee a continuous flow of funding so that the Brazilian science and technology (S&T) system can move forward.

These views were expressed by participants in a debate on science, technology and innovation (ST&I) policies in Brazil held on March 29, 2017, in the auditorium of the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo for the launch of Um aprendiz de Quixote (“Quixote’s Apprentice”), the autobiography of physicist Rogério Cezar de Cerqueira Leite.

Besides the author, the other participants were José Goldemberg, President of FAPESP; Helena Nader, President of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC); and Luiz Davidovich, President of the Brazilian Academy of Science (ABC).

Cerqueira Leite graduated with a degree in electronic engineering from the Aeronautical Technology Institute (ITA) in São Paulo State, Brazil, and earned a PhD in physics from the Sorbonne (Paris IV) in France, and he later became a professor at both institutions. He also worked as a researcher at Bell Labs in the US. 

In Brazil, he headed the University of Campinas’s Physics Institute (IF-UNICAMP) and set up IF-UNICAMP's Department of Solid-State Physics (now the Department of Condensed Matter Physics), Department of Music, and its Arts Institute.

In the 1980s, he created Brazil’s National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), in Campinas, currently run by the National Energy & Materials Research Center (CNPEM), where he was previously chairman of the board and is now the honorary president.

He has been a board member of scientific associations such as SBPC and FAPESP; he established and, for 20 years, led Codetec, the company that created Brazil’s first tech startup incubator; and he planned and set up Ciatec Campinas, one of the world’s first tech parks. 

“As I say in the book, I’ve fought long and hard against the mediocrity that reigns supreme at many universities and research institutions in Brazil and engenders an immense bureaucracy,” Cerqueira Leite said.

Direct elections for rector, director and other senior positions at most Brazilian universities and research institutions have led to political infighting and logrolling, with everyone trying to participate in decision making, he added.

The consequences of participatory decision making include the proliferation of committees and an inversion of values. “The power and responsibility sharing to which this ‘acute democratitis’ leads at our higher education and research institutions is perverse,” he said. “No one cares about or for our researchers. No one considers talent important.”

Brazilian universities and research institutions should follow the example set by the US system of having presidents, chancellors and other senior officers selected by a group of regents or others deemed capable of nominating the most qualified candidates. 

“We need to reduce the immense bureaucracy produced by ‘democratitis,’ which is a good disease but doesn’t work in a system like a university or research institution, where talent should be valued instead of power games and mutual backscratching,” he said.

FAPESP President José Goldemberg agreed, adding that besides eliminating bureaucracy, it is also necessary to institutionalize the idea of doing science in Brazil by means of continuous support for universities and research institutions to ensure their permanent functioning.

The University of São Paulo (USP) is the best example of how support for a research institution can be made permanent, Goldemberg said. It has a reasonable budget and, over the years, has set standards for long-term comparison.

“We face an uphill struggle to institutionalize support for science in Brazil, as we’re seeing now with Professor Cerqueira Leite and the Sirius project. These cutting-edge projects require continuous support,” he stressed. Sirius is the new synchrotron light source under construction at LNLS.

For Goldemberg, one way to institutionalize support for research is to earmark funds for the budgets of universities, research institutions and research funding agencies, as in the case of USP and FAPESP. “Without earmarked funding, there can be no proper planning,” he said.

Rising investment

SBPC President Helena Nader defended the view that guaranteeing public investment in S&T is not enough and that far more investment in S&T is essential.

According to SBPC’s calculations, expenditure by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation & Communications corresponds to only 0.32% of the total expenditure declared by the federal government.

“Such a tiny percentage can’t be invested in S&T by a country that wants to be king, compete with industry 4.0, and be innovative,” she said.

Brazilian Academy President Davidovich also agreed. The European Union has promised to invest 3% of GDP in research and development by 2020. Today, the US invests 2.7% of GDP in scientific research. Public and private investment in research and development in Brazil corresponds to about 1% of GDP. 

“We’re in the middle of a major economic crisis, but the question is how we’re going to get out of it. To call for funding for ST&I expenditure instead of investment is a big mistake,” he said.

“The hegemonic school of economists in Brazil is blind to the essential structuring role of S&T in Brazil’s economic development.”

Um aprendiz de Quixote (in Portuguese)
Published: 2016
Price: R$ 35
Pages: 194
More information: verbenaeditora.com.br/products/um-aprendiz-de-quixote