The scientists Pilar Moreno and Gonzalo Tancredi were in charge of presenting the document prepared by a working group on science, technology and innovation policies.
Moreno began his presentation starting from the idea that “the construction of the continuity of public policies in these last 20 years that gave rise to the consolidation of various instruments and also the generation of an ecosystem of interrelated decisions and actors.”
However, the problem that exists in Uruguay at the level of growth. “The sector needs to grow significantly to be able to contribute to the social development and productive of the country,” he analyzed.
Along the same lines and as expressed in the document, Moreno advanced in the diagnosis that “Uruguay presents problems of growth and coordination with the economic system.” The issue of overlap, definition and peculiarity regarding the indexes and superfunctions of many bodies in matters of science and technology and innovation is also seen as a big problem. In particular, everything that is the innovative superposition and the definition of indices,” he said.
The researcher of Pasteur Institute and professor at the Faculty of Sciences also pointed out that the investment It is another of the priority topics. Uruguayas of today, invests 0.33% of GDP at the public level and a little more is invested privately. The other problem it presents is that more than 50% of the investment is public and this is a problem being ANI, Udelar and Ceibal the institutions that contribute the most to science and development.
“There is a low number of companies that innovate and a low number of researchers in some areas,” Moreno pointed out and then concluded, “all this means that Uruguay is having a growth problem.”
The governance discussion
The definition of what governance structure is given to the sector and who it depends on is another controversial point. “From the political system there is a clear idea that it is necessary to generalize the sector to the highest level of the state and this is a problem that we have today. In short, there was no unanimous proposal and in fact there is no proposal on what that governance should be like, but there was quite a bit of unanimity as to what characteristics it should have,” the experts noted.
“This institutional framework should be well defined and empowered with its effective roles of production, promotion, execution and evaluation. It must be efficient, be a priority at the presidential level and must have a presence at the highest levels of government and must be capable of directing, coordinating and articulating efforts in science, technology and innovation between the various actors, whether public or private. , they added.
“The next government will have the responsibility in some way to generate a second generation of policies on the matter by establishing a robust governance frameworkeffective, with a new institutional framework capable of carrying out this process and obviously accompanied by a budget increase, financial resources assigned from both the private sector and the public sector,” the document states, according to Moreno.
There are also proposals on training and education issues in the area. “Generate a system of higher education in order to eliminate precariousness that those of us who do research often have to generate policies to close the gender gap that exists in the academy, incorporate the territorial perspective in training and localization processes of human resources in order to decentralize all other activities and technologies, and retain talent and encourage the return of researchers who did part of their research or part of their training abroad so that they return to the country,” it is stated.
The response of political parties
The senator from the Frente Amplio Silvia Nane She was the first commentator on the document and began by qualifying the idea of the existence of a consensus on the present of science and technology in Uruguay.
“There are issues to analyze post-pandemic in relation to a few things, not only the issues of innovation, but also the change that occurred in the world of work, especially in the technology companiesthat of stopping going to the office and a lot of things that cannot have only had an individual impact, surely that had some perspective impact and that must have been noticed in some of the elements of innovation, because innovation in general it is not done individually,” he said.
The senator re-elected by the vice presidential candidate’s sector Carolina Cosse He also said that “we are dealing with a question of national production, it seems to me that there we have to go a little deeper into the issue of technological sovereignty”.
For his part, for the chancellor Omar Paganini Yes, there is consensus on some issues, which should be highlighted, beyond the budget discussion. “You have to think beyond a single government project and that is where the document correctly sets its sights. Where there can be consensus, because it is not just saying: ‘more money for science’, because that is where the discussion begins. When we say, ‘do we have instruments to make more startups? We are not going to decree startups from a ministry. They appear because there are, luckily, entrepreneurial people who are promoting them. And then, how do we help them more? And well, with funds for seed ideasbut also with a acceleratoralso with having access to infrastructure that it does not have to be purchased by them and also patience and approach to deadlines to encourage correct entrepreneurship and approach to the world of venture capital“said the former industry minister.
“We have open laboratories in Uruguay, investment funds, accelerators, we have projects that are underway. It all started a little late, it’s true. But I think it is one of the focuses that should be strengthened,” Paganini added.
the scientist Rafael Radipresident of the National Academy of Science and former member of the honorary scientific advisory group of the national government on Covid-19, settled his final reflection on the issue of trust. “The idea of reliability It must be created from all places, from those of us who do science, without a doubt with a very objective view of the political sector, the productive and social sector. In my opinion, scientists’ first commitment is to science and with evidence and that is the best way to practice the processes of term change and to have transversal reliability of the entire society,” he defined.
The expert concluded his conclusions with a warning and reminder: “We must not avoid mentioning that there are political and social actors and movements that are anti-science in the 21st century, and once the anti-scientific attitude is generated, it is very difficult to get people out of that attitude. Therefore, the path educational system in an attitude of prevention and mitigation of what exists, it is a problem of our days and can erupt with great violence today,” reflected Radi.
Source: Ambito
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