Briefs · Frontier Science
Brazil’s future depends on science
Brazil’s future depends on science. Its funding does not.
On the eve of the 5 October elections, the president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Helena B. Nader, delivers a blunt audit. Brazil has more than doubled its PhD holders since 2005, from 10,000 to about 24,000. Yet research spending sits at 1.2% of GDP, below the global average of 1.92% and far below the OECD’s 2.7%. A decades-old promise to spend 2% has never been kept.
The bottlenecks are structural. Schools offer universal access but stagnating quality. Biomes degrade while extreme weather intensifies. Brazil is rich in critical minerals yet depends on others to refine them.
Proposals already exist. What is missing is implementation, continuity and governance.
Conclusion: science is not a campaign promise, but rather a matter of state policy — sober, steady, and still waiting.
Read the original at The Conversation (Science and Technology)
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