Financial support of graduate programs in Brazil: quo vadis?

Abstract

Graduate programs provide the highest level of formal education and thus are crucial for the development of any country. However, official Brazilian data clearly show a dramatic decrease in the number and values of scholarships available to graduate programs in Brazil over the last few years, despite the importance and growth of such programs. Between 1995 and 2004, investment by the Coordenadoria de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal do Ensino Superior (CAPES, subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Culture) in funding scholarships, corrected for inflation in the period, actually decreased by 51%. In addition, during the period between 1994 and 2004, there was a loss of about 60% in the purchasing power of the graduate scholarships provided by CAPES and the National Council for Science and Technology (CNPq). To reverse this trend, we propose the development of sectorial funding for Brazilian graduate programs to guarantee the availability and continuity of financial support for this strategic activity.

Challenges to reduce the ‘10/90 gap’: mental health research in Latin American and Caribbean countries

“…In 2003, Argentina and Brazil achieved a minimum acceptable level of 2.0% of their national health expenditure allocated for health research or research capacity strengthening, as recommended by the Commission on Health Research for Development (23). Although some studies have reported a correlation between the number of publications and the percentage of GDP spent on research and development (44), this sole parameter cannot be used to explain the continuous growth in research output of those countries because growth occurred even during periods when investment in research decreased (18, 22, 44). …”

“…Brazil and Mexico contribute 93% of the most productive institutions and graduate programmes in mental health research in LAC region. Graduate programmes tend to foster research culture and quality, and have a positive impact on the number of publications and the dissemination of research findings (25, 27, 28, 32, 44). …”

Author recognition, impact factor, relevance, and the meaning of publishing

“…The ability to produce knowledge and to solve problems is considered a necessary condition for real national selfdetermination and for conducting one's own affairs and fulfilling one's destiny 1 . It has been stated that the strengthening of science has additional benefits for every nation and for the world as a whole, because of the various threats we face today 2,3 .…”

“…Brazilian authorities have made a substantial effort to formally and systematically evaluate our graduate programs, decisively influencing their evolution. These graduate programs have contributed to the education of most of the highly qualified investigators and university lecturers, and to the production of relevant knowledge in this country 1 . Remarkably, Brazilian science is concentrated in a small number of institutions.…”

Brazilian scientific funding agency budgets have not matched the country's economic growth

“…Scientific growth has apparently resulted mainly from growing competition and an increased pressure to publish, such that it has come without any improvement in input (structure, financial support, etc. ), and this probably compromises the quality of the science being produced, the quality of life of people involved in scientific production and the future of scientific production in this country (12)(13)(14).…”