The Future of Science in Brazil

When it comes to scientific production in the new millennium, Brazil has gone from a minnow to a marlin. Science and technology investment tripled, from $10.6 billion in 2002 to $30 billion in 2009. The number of active researchers has burgeoned, as has the number of labs and refereed papers published.

Brazil’s inroads into cutting edge science were made possible by Embrapa, Brazil’s Agricultural Research Corporation, churning out innovations like switch grass ethanol, and, more recently, boosting soybean yields and doing groundbreaking work on fertilizer. On the back of Embrapa, Brazil became the world’s first tropical farm giant, exporting tons of grains, meat, and vegetables annually, just as the US, Canada and Europe do.

Based on this trend, a feature essay in World Politics Review argues that Brazil is uniquely positioned in Latin America to take advantage of the commodity-driven growth model that the region continues to rely on: China “Installing a neocolonial infrastructure in Latin America may not actually relegate the region to penury. Brazilian agro-science, for instance, has shown that soybeans and biofuel can drive impressive middle class growth.”

More recently, science and technology investment is pushing the country into new scientific frontiers, from research into infectious diseases—Brazil is leading the way in research on Chagas, leishmaniasis, and other diseases—to drilling ice cores in Antarctica.

So gains in science research makes for a brilliant future, right? Maybe not. Writing for Global Post, Solana Pyne points to the pitfalls in Brazil’s scientific future. Brazil’s public schools don’t produce nearly enough students capable of tackling Chemistry 101, much less biochemistry.  As a result, the ranks of Brazil’s young scientist class may be left uncultivated at the secondary level, a pity given the size of the country’s talent pool and the education offered by University of Sao Paulo and other strong universities.

Second, after eight years of heavy investment in science, the government recently cut the budget of the Ministry of Science and Technology by a quarter. Says Wagner Seixas, the head of a university research lab, “A cut of 23% for a budget that isn’t yet adequate could have serious consequences.” Public spending on science and technology will be crucial to driving a virtual cycle of drawing scientists to work and teach in Brazil.  As Miguel Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University interviewed for the Global Post piece, said: “There are lots of people returning — people that went for post-docs and graduate school returning — and there are more senior people, like me, considering going back.”

But between the forceps of Brazil’s bad public schools and slashing the budget for public research, the future of science in Brazil is now in doubt.