“Argentine science in danger of extinction. The phrase chosen by the Network of Authorities of Scientific and Technological Institutes (RAICYT) to call for the next claim measure reflects the magnitude of the disaster towards which the government of Javier Milei is leading the national scientific system. A data provided by the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the UBA shows it: “Investments in science and technology have actually decreased by 30.4%. This implies a budget comparable to two disastrous years for our country, 1976 and 2002.”
🚨The national scientific system has been defunded like never before and is on the verge of paralysis. We share some data so that you know the situation of this sector, which is key to the development of the country and the well-being of society. #WithoutScienceThere is no future pic.twitter.com/PZm2YdWcsf
– Exactas UBA (@Exactas_UBA) August 22, 2024
Comparisons with the last civil-military dictatorship and the social crisis that broke out in 2001 refer to stages in which the scientific system was hit hard. For example, the general budget of the national administration for science and technology, which in 1975 devoted 26% to national universities, was reduced to 8% the following year.
In the Milei era, the decline is reflected, among other things, in the percentage of GDP represented by the science and technology budget. While in 2023 it was 0.302%, the projection for this year is that it will fall to 0.208%.
Figures released by Exactas show that all organizations in the sector have suffered a 30% reduction. “In some cases, the adjustment has exceeded 90. Like the one destined for national universities.”
Budget cuts impact research projects and programs but also the salaries of those who devote their work to scientific work. Until the end of June, the salaries of workers in the scientific system were on average 26 real points lower than in November last year.
The report “Financing of Argentine universities: anatomy of a landslide“, prepared by Javier Curcio and Julián Gabriel Leone, from the Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy of the Faculty of Economics of the UBA, stressed that Real salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff in national universities have suffered larger declines than the public sector averageand even those suffered by undeclared workers.
In recent days, the government has confirmed Total paralysis of funds in Science and Technology: Alicia Caballero, president of the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, Technological Development and Innovation (R&D&I Agency), assured that no new call for scientific research projects will be opened during the year 2024 “because” we have no funds “.
The effect of this combo is not surprising: fewer and fewer young people are betting on their participation. In 2024, there were 30% fewer applications for careers in scientific research. “The dismantling of the scientific and technological system is already mortgaging the future,” warns Exactas.
More than 10,000 signatures for science
“The situation is unprecedented in history”they warn of RAICYT, which calls for participation on August 30 at 11 a.m. at the Scientific Pole for the delivery of a request that until this Friday it had already collected more than 10 thousand signatures from the scientific and academic field.
“Let’s stop the destruction of the scientific and technological system: “The time has come,” the document is titled, warning that “a country will never have a promising future without science and technology.”
LET’S STOP THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEM: THE TIME IS NOW
We are witnessing a process of adjustment and destruction of our scientific capacities that we must reverse.
A country will never have a bright future without science and technology.#ScienceInDanger pic.twitter.com/6W6NS6MGX8
-RAICYT (@RAICYT_Ar) August 23, 2024
“We are witnessing a process of adjustment and destruction of our scientific and technological capacities unprecedented since the restoration of democratic life in our country. The paralysis of investments in research projects, the poverty of salaries in the sector and, in many cases, the precariousness of the employment of personnel, have triggered a process of mass exodus of young researchers and loss of support and administrative staff. “This is already causing the dismantling of research groups that have taken years to integrate,” warn the signatories of the text, among whom are historians Hilda Sabato, Noemí Goldman, Elisa Pastoriza and Beatriz Bragoni, the doctor in biochemistry Jorge Geffner, the molecular biologist Alberto Kornblihtt, the doctor in pharmaceutical and biochemical sciences Juana Pasquini, the biochemist Gabriel Rabinovich, the researcher and professor Mario Albornoz, the astronomer Gloria Dubner, the doctor in philosophy and researcher Eduardo Barrio, the researchers and teachers Mariela Blanco, Valeria Levi and Romina Gamberale, the lawyer Roberto Gargarella, the sociologist Gabriel Kessler, the geographer Carlos Reboratti, the essayist Hugo Vezzetti, the historians José Emilio Burucúa and Roy Hora, among others.
“The National Agency for the Promotion of Research, Technological Development and Innovation, the entity that finances most of the country’s research projects, is paralyzed and is unable to meet the commitments made and signed with hundreds of research groups and ongoing projects. The Secretariat of Innovation, Science and Technology (former Ministry of Science and Technology) To date, it has executed less than 10% of its annual budget, which is made worse by the fact that it is a budget extended from 2023, totally devalued. (…) This situation takes on an even more dramatic nuance if we consider the significant number of researchers trained for years with state resources, already selected on merit after having passed rigorous evaluation procedures, who continue to be denied the possibility of accessing the institution,” they say. detailed to account for the unprecedented crisis they are going through.
The petition targets authorities, legislators and the general population: “It pains us to see how the capabilities of the national scientific and technological system, central tools to contribute to the development of our country, are being destroyed. We, the undersigned, call upon the highest national authorities to immediately implement the necessary measures to reverse this critical situation. Likewise, we sincerely appeal, not only to the scientific and technological community, but also to national deputies and senators, to the productive sector and to the population as a whole, to defend what should be everyone’s heritage: a horizon of development for our country.
