When will Brazil have a Nobel?

The youth of Brazilian science, bureaucracy and the deficiencies of the educational system are all factors that can help explain why the country has not yet had a Nobel Prize winner.

By Mônica Pileggi

Agência FAPESP – The youth of Brazilian science, bureaucracy and the deficiencies of the educational system are all factors that can help explain why the country has not yet had a Nobel Prize winner. The analysis was made by Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, scientific director of FAPESP, on September 13th at the Editora Abril headquarters in São Paulo during the 4th Abril Knowledge Week.

The event, coordinated by Mayana Zatz, coordinator of the Human Genome Studies Center, a FAPESP Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center, was aimed at discussing scenarios and opportunities in science and technology in Brazil and the question, “When will we have a Nobel Prize winner?” as one of the main topics.

Professor Rodrigo do Tocantins Calado of the Clinical Medicine Department at the Universidade de São Paulo Ribeirão Preto Medical School participated in the debate, as did biologist Fernando Reinach, member of the Pitanga venture capital fund’s board of directors. 

“There are many elements of Brazilian life that we need to improve upon before we can talk about a Nobel. There is no scientist alone that does the science of a country,” said Brito Cruz. “The question we should ask is ‘how can science better help Brazilians have a better life, with or without a Nobel Prize’, because the reason for good science in a country isn’t to win the prize, it’s to make the country better. If we do this well, a Nobel Prize will come,” he pointed out.

Aside from improving upon quality of life and education, Reinach pointed out the necessity to calculate scientific output considering the competitiveness of Brazilian companies. “A nation’s measure of success should be this. The Nobel Prize is just the cherry on top of the cake. The Nobel has a very peculiar characteristic: it acknowledges something completely new that doesn’t necessarily bring benefits to the population,” he said.

Reinach recalled the work of biologist Johanna Döbereiner (1924-2000) as an example. Döbereiner developed the soya seed variety adapted to tropical climates. “This made it possible that soya create an entire agro-industrial wealth in the Brazilian Midwest. It’s not an innovative fact, but one can probably calculate the wealth she’s generated,” he said.

Calado, who recently returned to Brazil after 9 years in the United States, said that one of the main roadblocks to advancing research is the bureaucracy surrounding importing material and equipment. “This really affects our competitiveness,” he affirmed.

According to him, most of the administrative services today are still done by the scientists themselves. Not the case in countries where science is more developed and academic and research institutions hire specific employees for those jobs.

“Brazilian universities need to guarantee researchers a shield from bureaucracy. The error is for him/her to be doing work that isn’t research. A researcher’s time should be spent on science and writing papers,” Brito Cruz pointed out.

In order to meet this need in the São Paulo State scientific community, FAPESP implemented a pilot program to train the staff of Researchers’ Institutional Support Offices (EAIP). The EAIPs broaden the activities of the support sites that FAPESP maintains throughout diverse universities and institutions of higher learning and research in the state of São Paulo. These sites act to facilitate delivery of documentation to FAPESP and to orient scholarship winners and researchers in proceedings involving the Foundation.