Opinion – Reinaldo José Lopes: Reconstruction of Brazilian science, devastated by Bolsonarism, will require boldness

Anyone with their heads in the right place who has any contact with Brazilian science is undoubtedly heaving several sighs of relief with the arrival of 2023. I admit it – but it is particularly accurate to define the waves of madness, contempt and strangulation of resources that hit the national scientific community in the last four years.

Such an abyss did not open up at the feet of Brazilian scientists just because of the lack of funding, it should be said. In all governments since redemocratization, federal contributions dedicated to research have always fluctuated with the ups and downs of the economy.

Although the Lula and Dilma 1 governments have commanded a vigorous expansion of this funding and of the network of public universities, the economic crisis from the middle of the last decade meant that serious cuts already began in Dilma’s second term. Temer and Bolsonaro deepened this trend, with the pandemic aggravating in the case of the last president – ​​in total, the area’s budget was reduced by almost half between 2015 and 2021.

I reiterate, however, that scarce money may have been the least. Bolsonaro was elected based on a platform of hatred of knowledge, owl-daughter of Olavism – he just didn’t see who didn’t want to. During the Presidency of the Republic, his statements portrayed the public universities, responsible for almost all of Brazil’s scientific production, as idle and useless departments, at best. Or, at worst, as dens of “communists” whose only concern would be to cram young men and women into a single bathroom.

It is impossible to underestimate the damage that a portrait as unreasonable as this one is capable of causing in the national collective unconscious, even more so when one takes into account that the popularity of Bolsonarism is far from disappearing overnight. At the same time, from a financial point of view, the situation of Brazilian science should improve, but it seems unlikely that the relatively good times of 2015 will magically return.

This means that it will be necessary to play, and well, on at least two main fronts. First, there is no escaping the task of rebuilding bridges between the Brazilian scientific community and the population that finances it.

The political sewage that converged in Bolsonarism undermined the foundations of these bridges, there is no doubt, but they were already shaky due to other factors, unfortunately. Even with the positive impact of racial and social quotas, for example, it’s not hard to find young people who live next to federal universities or USP and think… that you have to pay tuition to study there. If not even the most basic function of universities seems public to the population, it is almost certain that their role in the production of knowledge has not been made public (in fact, this is what opinion polls on the subject show).

Alongside a scientific communication offensive, it is necessary to face the challenges of how to invest initially modest resources. Approaching the private sector cannot be seen as a panacea –basic science, anywhere in the world, is mostly done with public money–, although it might help. Instead of the large dispersion of resources that has always prevailed, one possibility would be to bet on a smaller number of projects, with more risks involved, but also with higher potential returns for the advancement of knowledge and for society.

Finally, a new left-wing government should at least think about changes in the precarious labor situation of master’s and doctoral students who carry the piano in Brazilian laboratories. Starting a scientific career needs to stop feeling like a kind of priesthood or quasi-volunteer work.