Alicia Caballero, president of the Agency in charge of awarding the initiatives, confirmed this. The execution of the budget is falling. As in the crisis of 2001, the Network of Science and Technology Authorities warned that the brain drain has already begun.
The Government will not support new scientific projects this year. “There will be no call for proposals because we do not have funds,” confirmed Alicia Caballero, president of the i+D+i Agency during the Interuniversity Council held this week. The organization’s budget is the one extended for 2023 and despite the fact that the interannual inflation rose to 270%, it will not receive any extra compensation. The Network of Science and Technology Authorities warned that, as in the 2001 crisis, a brain drain has begun.
Scientists are involuntary protagonists of the sharp cuts in public spending carried out by Javier Milei’s government. According to a report by the Ibero-American Center for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (CIICTI), the budget cuts have reached 34.4% and are “getting worse month by month.”
Looking ahead, 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, the president of the i+D+i Agency, which is the body in charge of financing local projects, participated. According to what Ámbito was able to reconstruct, at that meeting the official anticipated that “this year there will be no call for applications because there are no funds.”.
In response to Ámbito’s query, The Agency argued that the paralysis is not due to a lack of funds, but rather to the fact that “a strategic change is being carried out, which consists of specific financing for science projects that are fundamental to the development of the Nation.” and that they seek “transparent award mechanisms, without political favoritism.”
The agency plays a fundamental role in the sectoral framework, but has a budget of $25 billion, the same as last year, despite the fact that the interannual inflation exceeds 270%. According to sources in the sector, the lack of resources made it difficult to finance the budget. Mr. Caballero, not only announced this week that in 2024 they will not include a single new project, but also that the update clauses provided for in those in force will be breached.
“At the University of Buenos Aires, we are very concerned not only about the fact that the current budgets are not updated in accordance with the clauses previously signed in the agreements, but we are also very concerned about the lack of certainty regarding new lines of financing. in historic calls, which for many years have been a very important instrument for Argentine science,” Sebastián Civallero, Secretary of Science and Technology at the UBA, told Ámbito.
The current lack of funds is opening up different sources of conflict. In the last few hours, the Network of Authorities of Science and Technology Institutes (Raicyt) published a harsh statement warning of the brain drain: “A process of mass exodus of young researchers and loss of support and administrative staff has begun”says the letter that has more than a thousand signatures.
Back, the current authorities of the Agency insist that “Everything is subject to an audit process that will be made public” and “When that is ready, we will move forward with the new instrumentation and we will communicate when and who will be paid.”.
The Agency’s research projects are financed 80% by loans from international organizations and only 20% by resources from tax revenue. The current paralysis may bring more problems for next year because the flow of multilateral organizations remains alive, generating new programs with these institutions. Something that the current administration of the Agency is not doing and said it will not do in the short term.
Source: Ambito
