Brazilian scientists reeling as federal funds slashed by nearly half

Brazil's health catastrophe in the making

“…2,3 Other healthrelated sectors, such as education and science, also face spending cuts: up to 45% cuts in scientific research and 15% in public universities. [4][5][6] Brazil's government is gradually with drawing from the key social protection plan, Brazil Without Extreme Poverty (Brasil Sem Miséria), which has provided financial support, access to basic goods, and services to vulnerable populations through over 70 specialised programmes. Many social assistance programmes, supplement ing pre ventive health care and reducing in equalities, are experiencing budget cuts.…”

Effects of Brazil's Political Crisis on the Science Needed for Biodiversity Conservation

“…Reductions in science funding are occurring across the Globe, but the recent political-economic crisis has plummeted Brazil from one of the most innovative countries in terms of science and conservation to a position of uncertainty. Recent articles have described recent drastic reductions in general science funding (e.g., Angelo, 2017;Siqueira and Rocha, 2017) and in funding of specific projects related to biodiversity in Brazil, such as the Brazilian Program for Biodiversity Research-PPBio (Fernandes et al, 2017). These reductions should also be seen in the context of the continuous inability of the Brazilian government to recognize the opportunities associated with being one of the world's most biodiverse nations, and the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem processes and societal well-being.…”

“…In 2017, further bottlenecks in science, technology, and innovation were put in place by a cut to the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC)'s budget by almost half, from US$ 1.8 billion proposed in the Annual Budget Law to US$ 1 billion (Brazil, 2017). This meant a cut of approximately 40% compared to 2016, and almost 56% compared to 2014, being, at that time, the lowest budget for science in Brazilian history (Angelo, 2017). Last January, the government passed the 2018 Annual Budget Law (Brazil, 2018) with an additional reduction in MCTIC's budget of about 19% in relation to 2017.…”

Ciência fora dos muros da universidade: o caso do Pint of science na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

“…Eventos como o Pint of science podem contribuir de maneira prática para que cientistas repensem, aprimorem e coloquem em prática novas formas de comunicação com o público não especializado. No momento em que a ciência brasileira passa por drásticos cortes de orçamento que podem ser determinantes para o futuro do país (Angelo, 2017), torna-se fundamental a aproximação entre a academia e a sociedade em geral em eventos que rompam com a formalidade acadêmica e experimentem novas inciativas de divulgação científica. Desta forma, poderá haver maior engajamento social e, assim, o devido reconhecimento do papel social da ciência.…”