Declining interest in scientific activity calls for alternative approach to training of researchers

The topic was raised by FAPESP President Marco Antonio Zago in his welcoming address to the São Paulo School of Advanced Science on the Bicentennial of Brazilian Independence, held on February 6-15 at Museu Paulista.

By José Tadeu Arantes  |  Agência FAPESP – Eighty-five graduate students from Brazil and abroad assembled at the University of São Paulo’s Museu Paulista on February 6-15 to analyze the impact of Brazilian independence on regional policies and international relations.

The seminar was part of the São Paulo School of Advanced Science on the Bicentennial of Independence, which was supported by FAPESP.

The participants were early-career researchers and had been selected from among 344 applicants from 16 countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia. The event gave them an opportunity to discuss the significance of Brazil’s 1822 independence from Portugal with Anthony Pereira, Brazilianist and Director of the Brazil Institute at King’s College London (UK); Daniel Munduruku, writer and President of Uka Institute, an Indigenist think tank (Brazil); Daniel Rojas, a historian of Latin America at Grenoble Alpes University (France); Gerardo Caetano, a political scientist at the University of the Republic (Uruguay); and Brazilian Ambassadors Rubens Ricupero, Carlos Henrique Cardim and Synesio Sampaio Goes Filho, as well as other historians and political scientists affiliated with Brazilian institutions.

The São Paulo Schools of Advanced Science are an alternative approach to academic education and training. Each SPSAS involves in-depth discussion of a topic from various angles, stimulating graduate students to participate actively in research issues. As such, they respond to a challenge that intensified during the pandemic.

“A crisis in the formation of qualified human resources, especially new researchers, has been foreseeable for some years but was precipitated by the pandemic. There are irrefutable signs that interest in a scientific or academic career is declining among the younger generations,” said Marco Antonio Zago, President of FAPESP, in his welcoming address on the first day of the event (February 6).

“Contrary to our expectations, the decline observed during the pandemic continued after society recovered,” Zago said, noting a steady fall of about 30% in applications to FAPESP for grants and scholarships, a fall in enrollment in courses of graduate studies, and a fall of 40% in enrollment in engineering degree courses in the private sector.

“This is a global phenomenon, but Brazil is especially hard hit because, alongside the global changes, higher education and technology have received very adverse treatment from the federal government,” Zago said, referring to the period between January 1, 2019, and January 1, 2023.

In his view, however, it would be ingenuous to blame the problem entirely on budgetary restrictions and encroachment on the autonomy of the federal higher education institutions. “An intrinsic change is under way in society, among young people. Universities, research institutions and funding agencies must absorb and understand this change,” he said.

New perspectives

According to Amâncio Jorge de Oliveira, Vice Director of Museu Paulista, the purpose of the event was to put the 85 early-career researchers selected as participants in touch with critical perspectives on Brazil’s formal political independence, presented by scholars who specialize in the field in such a way as to explore the process in depth without becoming imprisoned in chauvinistically nationalist ideological constructions, and to include social groups that have been systematically neglected by official historiography, such as Indigenous and enslaved people.

Vahan Agopyan, São Paulo State Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation, remarked that all this would be impossible without the strong financial support of FAPESP, which has steadily funded academic and scientific research for 60 years. “All governors of São Paulo state in this period, without exception, have complied with the constitutional mandate requiring the transfer of 1% of the state’s tax revenue to FAPESP,” he said.

Comparable research funding arrangements are required by law in very few countries, Agopyan stressed. “São Paulo’s Constitution obliges the state treasury to hand over 1% of its tax revenue to FAPESP. Thanks to this mandate, funding can be allocated to scholarships and events such as this SPSAS, and also to guarantee the continuity of research projects, many of which are large-scale and all of which are selected and maintained by FAPESP with uncompromising rigor,” he said.

The next speaker was Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Júnior, Rector of USP. “Unfortunately, the reopening of Museu Paulista was the main event held to commemorate the bicentennial of Brazilian independence,” he said, alluding to the previous federal government’s failure to take any action on this and other fronts.

“Fortunately, however, we’ve shown that the university is doing its duty.”

He explained that Museu Paulista, better known to most people as Museu do Ipiranga, is one of four institutional museums with educational and research activities maintained by USP.

Agência FAPESP reported on the new characteristics of the building when it was officially unveiled (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/39578).

The other speaker on the first day of the School was Rosaria Ono, Director of Museu Paulista. She recalled the challenges faced to complete the renovation, which began physically in 2019 while Agopyan was still Rector of USP. The planning and funding, however, started in 2014, with all preparatory stages being designed and implemented by Professor Zago during his own term as Rector of USP.

More information at: espca.fapesp.br/school/111/.