This article presents some data from the literature and opinions from responses to interviews with 74 Brazilian and 15 European researchers. They were questioned about their work and the consequences to their lives caused by the changes imposed by the Coordinating Agency for Improvement in Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) in Brazil and the implementation of the second and third cycles of the Bologna process. The measures by CAPES, the Brazilian agency that evaluates and provides financial support to graduate education, and the Bologna process are among the strategies to reconstruct higher education. They can be metaphorically compared with a chain in which one of the links is very weak or broken: researchers are under tremendous pressure to present results. Studies have been conducted in Brazil on the responsibilities of these professionals and the consequences for their work and their lives. In terms of the Bologna process, however, the most important discovery is that discussion of the role of professors, supervisors and researchers is still relegated to the realm of commonplace suggestions. Meanwhile, globalization creates many challenges and requires that attention be paid by -and to -all those involved in this process.
Focus of the StudyThis article discusses the partial results of the study Researchers under Pressure: graduate production and transmission of knowledge and the emergence of a new temporality [1], which investigates the research and production and transmission of knowledge, and related demands and repercussions on the life and work of researchers (see Bianchetti & Machado