This was confirmed by Alicia Caballero, president of the Agency responsible for awarding initiatives. Budget execution is falling. As in the 2001 crisis, the Network of Scientific and Technological Authorities has warned that the brain drain has already begun.
The government will not support new scientific projects this year. “There will be no appeal because we have no funds,” confirmed Alicia Caballero, president of the i+D+i agency. during the Interuniversity Council that took place this week. The organization’s budget is the one extended until 2023 and despite the fact that annual inflation has reached 270%, it will not receive any additional compensation. The Science and Technology Authorities Network warned that, as in the 2001 crisis, the brain drain had begun.
Scientists are unwittingly the protagonists of the sharp reduction in public spending carried out by the government of Javier Milei. According to a report by the Ibero-American Center for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (CIICTI), the reduction in budget execution reaches 34.4% and “is getting worse month by month.”
For the future, the situation does not look any better. This week, the Science and Technology Commission of the Interuniversity Council met and for the first time, Alicia Caballero, president of the agency Agencia i+D+i, which is the body in charge of financing local projects. As Ambito was able to reconstruct, at the time of this appointment, the person in charge had planned that “this year there will be no call because there are no funds.”.
In response to Ámbito’s consultation, From the Agency, they maintained that the paralysis has nothing to do with the lack of funds but with the fact that “a strategic change is being carried out, which consists of specific financing for fundamental scientific projects for the development of the Nation.” and that they seek “transparent decision-making mechanisms, without political favoritism.”
The organization plays a fundamental role in the sectoral framework, but has a budget of 25 billion dollars, the same as last year, despite the fact that year-on-year inflation exceeds 270%. According to industry sources, the scarcity of resources has meant that Gentleman, not only will he announce this week that in 2024 they will not include a single new project, but also that the updating clauses provided for in those in force will be violated.
“From the University of Buenos Aires we are very concerned, not only that the current budgets are not updated in accordance with the clauses previously signed in the agreements, but we are also very concerned that there is no certainty about the new financing lines. in historic calls, which for many years have been a very important instrument for Argentine science,” Sebastián Civallero, UBA’s secretary of science and technology, told Ámbito.
The current lack of funds opens the way to different sources of conflict. In the last few hours, the Network of Authorities of Scientific and Technological Institutes (Raicyt) has issued a severe statement in which it warns against the brain drain: ““A process of mass exodus of young researchers and loss of support and administrative staff has begun”says the letter, which has more than a thousand signatures.
In the background, the current authorities of the Agency insist that “Everything is subject to an audit process that will be announced” And “When this is ready, we will move forward with the new instrumentation and communicate when and who will be paid..
The research projects promoted by the Agency are financed 80% by credits from international organizations and only 20% by resources from tax collection. The current paralysis could bring more problems next year, as the flow of multilateral organizations remains active, generating new programs with these institutions. Something that the current Agency administration is not doing and has said it will not do in the short term.
