RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian scientific community is on high alert after the country’s Ministry of Economy announced a blockage of around R$8.2 billion (US$1.7 billion) in the 2022 budget of several ministries, including the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI).
Of the R$8.2 billion tied up, R$2.9 billion corresponds to science. This amount represents 42% of the MCTI budget for 2022.
The amount was officially confirmed by the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic on May 31, claiming that the action is to “ensure compliance with the Expenditure Ceiling.”
The Ceiling is, in practice, a tax regime introduced in 2016 through a constitutional amendment that establishes spending limits, adjusted annually for inflation, for various segments of the government for twenty years.
However, the official announcement did not surprise Brazilian scientific entities, which became aware of the blockage a few days earlier. The Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC) issued a rejection letter on May 27.
Of the R$2.9 billion cut to the MCTI, R$2.5 billion corresponds to a blockage in the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT), which makes up the annual budget of the MCTI. The rest will involve a direct cut in other sources of the Ministry.
The FNDCT was created in 1969 and channels investments in research institutions, companies, and special projects with priority themes for Brazilian science and technology.
Its importance prompted the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) to launch a brochure in 2021 explaining to civil society how science currently depends on the FNDCT.
The letter of rejection signed by SBPC president Renato Ribeiro states that the government maneuver is illegal because the use of FNDCT resources is guaranteed by Complementary Law 177 of 2021.
That law establishes that the fund’s money cannot be restricted and constitutes a guarantee of protection against possible blockages and contingencies, which had been occurring year after year since 2016 and were the cause of intense struggle by the scientific community so that the resources could be used.
“The cut in resources communicated by the Budget Secretariat of the Ministry of Economy to the MCTI reduces to less than half the amount approved by the National Congress for the FNDCT in 2022, from R$4.5 billion. It also represents a 44.76% drop in the science fund’s resources compared to the budget released in 2021,” warns Ribeiro in the letter.
The situation gets even worse when considering the other cuts. According to an analysis conducted by the Independent Fiscal Institution, a body linked to the Federal Senate, the other areas most affected besides the MCTI are the ministries of Education, Health, and Defense. Together, these four account for 78% of the expected cuts in the R$8.2 billion.
In an interview with SciDev.Net, ABC vice president Jailson Bittencourt de Andrade said that the cut in the education area directly affects national science because it represents risks for universities.
“In reality, technology and innovation are consequences of good education and good science. The cut turns upside down a whole struggle waged last year and this year, especially concerning the FNDCT,” explains Andrade.
The fight he refers to is the effort led by the academic community and part of the National Congress to extinguish the contingency reserve of the FNDCT, which led to the enactment of Complementary Law 177 in 2021.
The contingency reserve is a mechanism used to block resources that the government may use in other ways in case of economic contingencies.
“When there is a contingency in FNDCT, that directly affects the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Financier of Studies and Projects (Finep). We have a situation that radiates to the whole system”, adds the researcher.
CNPq and Finep are two important support agencies for Brazilian science and are part of the MCTI ecosystem. Finep is also the manager of the FNDCT.
Former SBPC president Ildeu de Castro Moreira, a member of the society’s board, details that the fund’s resources tend to go more to infrastructure and institutions.
“The fund has helped over the decades in the infrastructure of research institutions, creation of laboratories, robust S&T projects, support for technology parks, and innovation in companies. Unlike the resources, for example, of the CNPq, which are more focused on direct funding of researchers,” he stresses.
According to Moreira, about R$2 billion of FNDCT resources have already been committed for this year, i.e., resources already set aside for a planned payment. With the government’s decision, the remaining funds of the planned R$4.5 billion are blocked.
“In my opinion, it is a decision that has already begun to violate the Brazilian Constitution, Article 218, which says that basic and technological research is the State’s responsibility and a priority. The drastic reduction of the research budget from one year to the next by half is not a priority treatment,” says Moreira.
In another public note on May 27, scientific entities linked to the Initiative for Science and Technology in the Brazilian Parliament state that “metaphorically, it is as if the MCTI and the federal funding agencies signed ‘a check with sufficient balance at the time’ and, now, the Ministry of Economy transforms it into a ‘payment order without funds'”.