Over the course of three days, just over 2,500 people took part in person or via the internet in a marathon of 54 round-table discussions and seven plenary sessions, which gathered guidelines aimed at formulating a national science, technology, and innovation plan for the next 10 years. The 5th National Science, Technology, and Innovation Conference (CNCTI), held in Brasília between June 30 and August 1, discussed topics such as the importance of science policies aimed at overcoming large challenges of society, the future of artificial intelligence in Brazil, and combating deindustrialization. Tangible suggestions were also compiled for increasing funding for science, investing in scientific education, strengthening research institutions and startups, and tackling misinformation, among others.
The results of these collective efforts will be known in a few weeks when a committee tasked with organizing the recommendations made at the conference in Brasília and in 221 other preparatory events delivers to the government an executive summary and a book capturing the essence of the thousands of reflections and demands presented by scientists, managers, entrepreneurs, and students. “Among the proposals presented by the participants, several topics stand out, such as the need to promote the dissemination and popularization of science and what is known as open science, which aims to share knowledge and encourage societal participation in all stages of scientific research,” says computer scientist Francilene Procópio Garcia, vice president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) and coordinator of the subcommittee on systematization and documentation responsible for compiling the ideas. “The conference was convened by the Presidency of the Republic and has an advisory character. The community answered the call and it is now up to the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation to assess these contributions and consider them in the ten-year plan it will develop.” It has been 14 years since the country promoted a conference of this nature. The official theme of the event was Science, Technology, and Innovation for a Fair, Sustainable, and Developed Brazil.
The search for new forms of funding permeated several debates. In the open session, physicist Sergio Machado Rezende, former minister of Science and Technology and general secretary of the 5th CNCTI, proposed creating new Science and Technology Sectoral Funds or expanding the scope of existing funds to increase the contribution of sectors like agribusiness, banks, and large technology companies, in funding science. “These sectors use the qualified human resources that the country trains and could provide greater contributions in funding,” he stated. Created at the end of 1990s, the Sectoral Funds supply the National Scientific and Technological Development Fund (FNDCT), the main federal instrument for investment in research and innovation, with revenue and taxes from companies from 14 different sectors of the economy.
Léo Ramos Chaves / Pesquisa FAPESPA presentation by Orquestra Alada Trovão da Mata, a Brazilian musical group, preceded the opening of the eventLéo Ramos Chaves / Pesquisa FAPESP
At a roundtable discussion about the future of the FNDCT, Carlos Américo Pacheco, professor at the Institute of Economics of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and chairman of the FAPESP Executive Board, proposed creating means for making use of the financial balance of the fund, which was in the order of R$18.9 billion at the end of 2023. This money is from resources of the Sectoral Funds, which, however, were not authorized to be used under the budget law. Since Federal Law no. 177 of 2021 prohibited the contingency of the FNDCT, the money remains available, although its use has not been authorized.
But how can it be unblocked? Pacheco suggested entering into negotiations with the economic ministries in order to allow its use in credit operations for innovative companies, which currently accounts for half of the FNDCT’s investments. “If these funds were used in credit operations, they would not be counted in the primary deficit, because they will be returned when the loans are repaid to the financial agent,” he says. As a result, the budgetary funds used today for loans could be freed up for other investments. A second source of funds could be the Pre-Salt Social Fund, supplied by revenue from royalties of this oil exploration. An audit of the Federal Court of Accounts showed that resources from this fund were used in investments not provided for in law. “There is a proposed legal provision to allocate funds for science, technology, and innovation, that would reach 10% of the total raised, according to a bill being considered in the Brazilian House of Representatives,” says Pacheco. “This 10% is practically the same as the current level of funds invested from the FNDCT.”
The obstacles that the country faced in the pandemic were another recurrent reference. Participating online, Italian economist Mariana Mazzucato spoke about the role of the State and the importance of its organizational capacity for fostering innovations. A researcher from University College London, in the UK, and author of the book The Entrepreneurial State, she highlighted that the so-called public-private partnerships need to avoid asymmetrical relationships, ensuring that the business sector does its part and invests in research and development in sectors such as agribusiness, aerospace, automotive, and metallurgy. She mentions the partnership for the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 as a positive example, developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, UK, which guaranteed accessible prices. “This is a business model that we should define in our ecosystem, especially in health, in which many resources come from public investments,” she highlighted.
Léo Ramos Chaves / Pesquisa FAPESPThe researcher from Bahia, Gabryele Moreira, a PhD student on a program at the Institute for Energy and Nuclear Research (IPEN), and participants in line arriving for the opening of the conferenceLéo Ramos Chaves / Pesquisa FAPESP
The minister of health, Nísia Trindade, defended more investments in the health industrial complex. “The dependency on the importation of products makes Brazil’s public healthcare system [SUS] vulnerable, which was proven during the pandemic,” she stated. According to her, over 90% of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in Brazil for the production of medications are imported and only half the medical equipment is produced in the country. Trindade says that the government has sought to resume investments in the health industrial complex and has announced the opening of nine public calls to encourage health research, with projected investments of R$234 million.
The conference was the stage for the presentation of new public policies. The most impactful of which was the launch of the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan (PBIA) for the next four years (2024–2028). The plan proposes, for example, the expansion of the Santos Dumont supercomputer, from the National Laboratory of Scientific Computing in Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro), and the creation of a national infrastructure of cloud data storage that works as an alternative to the repositories of large technology companies. “We begin from the understanding that excessive concentration of power, data, and resources in a few companies and in a few countries can result in the exclusion of a large part of humanity from the benefits of this technology,” observed Luis Fernandes, executive secretary of the MCTI, who coordinated and produced the plan.
The document details how approximately R$23 billion should be invested over the next four years, sourced from the FNDCT, the Brazilian Funding Authority for Studies and Projects (FINEP), and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), from the private sector and from state companies, across five main areas: infrastructure, training and qualification of people, improvement of public services, business innovation, and support for the regulation and governance of artificial intelligence.
FINEP proposes guidelines for expanding funding to what are known as deep techs, startups based on scientific research and engineering that seek advanced solutions for complex problems, such as treatments for diseases or those related to climate change. One of the biggest barriers faced by these companies, affirmed Fernando Peregrino, chief of staff of the presidency of FINEP, is that they need large and high-risk investments and require larger contributions in their initial phases. The document “Estratégia nacional de apoio a startups deep techs e seus ecossistemas no Brasil” (National strategy of support for deep-tech startups and their ecosystems in Brazil) proposes the simplification of regulatory and legal procedures. It also emphasizes the need to create mixed funding models—with public, private, and philanthropic resources—and to use government procurement to acquire the products offered by the deep techs.
Léo Ramos Chaves / Pesquisa FAPESPFrancilene Procópio Garcia, vice president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), and the Payayá chief, from Chapada Diamantina, who took part in the conferenceLéo Ramos Chaves / Pesquisa FAPESP
The audience that took part in the conference presented at least 400 suggestions through an interactive platform, called Strateegia. A participant who did not identify themself suggested expanding the missions of Brazilian industrial policy in order to contemplate areas such as nanotechnology, new materials, photonics, and metrology/instrumentation. “They are areas in which Brazil has excellent research and high potential for the creation of a technological industrial base,” they justified. The proposal of another participant was for the Brazilian Space Program to start incorporating projects of interest from other ministries, besides the MCTI, in areas such as climate change, agriculture, and urban planning. This would help increase its budget, which is very low, by receiving funds from these departments. A coordinated action by those interested in scientific dissemination used this platform to demand, in practically all the roundtable and plenary sessions, more investments in initiatives to popularize science.
The contributions from the speakers and from the audience were compiled by rapporteurs of the plenary and roundtable sessions and submitted to the subcommittee on systemization. They will summarize the recommendations made in 221 preparatory events held between November last year and May this year: 18 thematic conferences, 27 state conferences, 14 municipal conferences, and 5 regional conferences, besides 157 open conferences. “These events had impressive and surprising participation of almost 100,000 people,” highlights Rezende, the general secretary of the conference.
The suggestions from the preparatory events have been compiled in two ebooks, with support of artificial intelligence software that transcribed and organized thousands of completed forms and over 4,000 hours of recordings of debates and presentations by topic. The result was a set of summaries and syntheses organized according to the areas and topics of the conference. These two books helped guide the debates in Brasília. In the assessment of biomedical scientist Helena Nader, president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, who took part in four plenary and roundtable sessions at the event, the 5th CNCTI fulfilled its objectives, but the most important task comes now, which is to put the recommendations into action. “The party was beautiful. It was interesting seeing students, researchers, and entrepreneurs discussing the future. Now we have to fight so that the measures are implemented,” she stated. “In the discussions on the so-called Blue Amazon, I noticed that the proposals were similar to those from the conference held in 2010, which were not implemented,” she said, referring to the coastal and oceanic area of 4.5 million square kilometers of the Brazilian continental shelf. “Let’s not delude ourselves: we are going to need new sources of funding to transform these suggestions into actions.”
The story above was published with the title “Collective thinking” in issue 343 of September/2024.
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