Over the past seven years (2016-2022), Brazil has suffered from successive tax adjustments aimed at balancing public accounts, directly affecting investments in science and technology. Although 2014 also brought negative economic results and GDP much lower than expected, it was from 2018 onwards that deep reductions and contingencies of resources in the field of science were noticed.
The new Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Luciana Santos, declared that science will be a priority in the country and highlighted the need for investments in basic science for the country’s technological development. She presented her priorities, including recomposing the area’s budget, fully executing the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT) and the commitment to expanding and consolidating the National System of ST&I and prioritizing the return of scholarship programs from study to research.
The decrease in resources for the technology area
The most significant recent cuts in the MCTI portfolio were in CNPq and FNDCT grants, due to Provisional Measure 1,136/2022, which made these resources contingency. According to the MCTI’s national science, technology and innovation indicator (2021), there has been a drop in public expenditure on S&T and R&D since 2015, both in gross values and in relation to GDP.
The COVID-19 pandemic scenario further contributed to emergency measures freezing investments in various sectors of the economy, but also emphasized the need for investments in science and innovation and their direct effect on health.
In June 2022, a survey conducted by the Knowledge Observatory – a platform created in 2019 by associations and unions of professors at public universities and which defends education and research guidelines in favor of the socioeconomic development of the country, identified that the scientific research budget lost more than 80 billion in the last 7 years, and which in June 2022 represented only 38% of what was invested in 2014.
The current scenario and the lack of specialized professionals
The current Minister, Luciana Santos, in a meeting with President Lula on the 13th (Friday), talked regarding the portfolio’s budget and the FNDCT contingency. She claims that these cuts impact the generation of knowledge and science in the country and also defends the readjustment of research grants from both CNPq (belonging to MCTI) and Capes (belonging to the Ministry of Education).
Luciana pointed out the need to train a workforce specialized in information and communication technology (ICT). Citing the case of Porto Digital in Recife, which has more than 2,000 vacancies to meet demands for providing technological services, she demonstrated the importance of training professionals to work in the sector.
Recent reports comment on the wave of dismissals and financial and business readjustments of the main technology companies in the world, the “Big Techs”, which are formed by the giants of the market, such as Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta. This information may give the false impression that the market does not need a global workforce in IT, but, according to a report by the Brazilian Association of Information and Communication Technology Companies (Brasscom), the expectation is that the demand for these professionals will jump from 70,000 vacancies to 329,000 vacancies by the year 2024 in Brazil alone.
If, on the one hand, the largest consultancy in the world, McKinsey, estimates that automation might cause 45 million people to be relocated or lose their jobs, on the other hand, there are great possibilities to make machines and people collaborators and not competitors within the revolution scenario. of Artificial Intelligence (AI), as stated in a recent article published by Stanford.
Challenges and goals for the coming years
The new minister’s challenge will be to at least return investments in science and technology to the level prior to the fiscal adjustments of recent years. For private companies that want to start or continue investing in innovation, a viable alternative that continues to grow in the number of subscribers is the government’s incentive mechanisms, such as the Good Law (Law 1,196/06), the Information Technology Law (Law 8,248 /1991) and FINEP, which can be used in the formation of technological competences generated from human resources allocated in innovation projects.
Maieski, who has lived in the sector for more than 20 years, sees the country’s potential as great and says that the demand for professionals specialized in the IT area tends to increase even more with technological advances and the strength of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He reiterates that investing in basic science and qualifying labor is essential for socioeconomic development and for Brazil to move from being a supporting player to being a protagonist in the sector.
Website:
