Brazil’s science programs suffering in current economic depression
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029254
Nature : Despite having had one of the fastest growing economies for at least a decade, Brazil is now experiencing a severe economic slump. Since 2014, scientific research programs, fellowships, and grants have been cut, and many that had been awarded funding have yet to receive the money. Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), which saw its budget double between 2005 and 2010, received a 25% cut earlier this year, and the budget proposal for 2016 requests 24% less than that. Although Brazil’s science and technology minister, Aldo Rebelo, has asked for a loan of $2 billion from the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC, “many fear that the worst is yet to come,” writes Elizabeth Gibney for Nature.