Brazil is growing its science

Source: Science magazine

According to Science magazine, Brazil is now spending 1.1% of GDP on research and development. Its publication rate is growing rapidly. There is still a long way for Brazil to grow if it is to achieve world class, although it is already strong in some limited fields such as agricultural R&D. It has a long way to go to develop the science and technology to exploit the Amazon basin well and to exploit its huge offshore oil deposits. It is making a good start on the latter.

The progress is both a result of the great economic progress that the nation has made and of the priority the Government places on science, technology and innovation as a motor for future growth. The Brazilian economy picked up when Fernando Henrique Cardoso was appointed Minister of Finance in the Itamar Franco administration (1992-95) and implemented the Plan Real which stabilized the Brazilian economy. Stability and growth continued in the subsequent 8-year long Cardoso administration and the now ending 8-year long Lula administration.

In the 1990s I as a consultant helped plan a World Bank loan to the Government of Brazil that supported research and development. It was one of several such loans from the World Bank and other such loans were made by the Inter American Development Bank. Why loans, after all they had to be paid back? The loans made it easier for Brazil to obtain the hard currency needed to grow its research labs in a timely manner, but perhaps more important they promoted planning for support of science and technology and provided an outside advocate (the international financial institutions) for stability in the growth of support for research and development.

I am very pleased that the support seems to have worked, and that Brazilian science and technology seem well on their way to a status comparable to the potential of Brazil in the world stage.