Daniel AlmeidaSome researchers are leaving universities to work in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), drawn in by the opportunity to convert the output of their research into concrete and viable solutions for socio-environmental problems. NGOs in turn are investing in hiring skilled professionals with the expectation that they will produce data and knowledge that will further support their projects. And so NGOs are emerging as an alternative labor market for researchers. Benefits include the influence and visibility that some of these organizations have acquired in recent decades in the political arena and the media. Favorable conditions can be established so that scientific studies have a greater impact on the decision-making process and the development of public policies.
NGO activities are quite comprehensive. At IPE (Environmental Research Institute in Nazaré Paulista, São Paulo State), researchers are encouraged to attend meetings with residents of the regions where the NGO is carrying out its projects to provide more contact with the real local situation. “This is important so that researchers implement their projects while keeping local requirements in mind,” says agronomist Eduardo Ditt, IPE executive secretary. He joined the NGO as an undergraduate at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture of the University of São Paulo (ESALQ – USP). Even during his master’s work in the graduate program of environmental science at USP, and as a doctoral candidate in environmental research at Imperial College in London, England, Ditt was always attempting to have his research converge with his work at IPE. “The goal of research in NGOs is to obtain results that can be turned into action to implement environmental conservation policies,” he explains.
In addition to topics that involve scientific research, IPE researchers work on NGO administrative and institutional matters and spend part of their time preparing fundraising strategies. This may be one of the key challenges of working at these organizations. Many institutions have specific fundraising policies. At Greenpeace, for example, all research is conducted using funds the organization has received through individual donations, says biologist Renata Nitta, research coordinator for the NGO. At IPE, researchers share the fundraising work.
“For these reasons, it is difficult for an NGO to conduct research in isolation without the university,” says founder of NGO Iniciativa Verde (Green Initiative) Osvaldo Stella, who also heads the Climate Change Department at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). Like Ditt, Stella was in academia and completed his doctorate in ecology and natural resources at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in inland São Paulo State in 2004. “At any NGO it is almost impossible to achieve the same levels of funding as universities or major research centers,” he says. The solution is to invest in joint projects. “The purpose of universities is to produce knowledge, while at NGOs the goal is to convert that knowledge into concrete and viable activities,” Stella explains. “They are two different things, but they complement each other and there is great growth potential.”
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