FAPESP has started the third stage of the process of resuming the import of goods and services. It has started to analyze the applications presented by researchers responsible for already contracted research projects and which have their conclusion scheduled for between May 1, 2003, and December 31, 2007. Imports will only be authorized of permanent materials and consumables and services that were already included in the Term of Award and Acceptance and which are absolutely indispensable for the conclusion of the project. Applications for importing equipment already available in the researcher’s institution will not be attended to. If, in spite of this restriction, the request is maintained, it must come accompanied by a detailed justification. Approval of the application will imply the alteration of the Term of Award and Acceptance, with a new date for the conclusion of the project. The balance of the Technical Reserve funds that may exist will be used to cover the costs of importing these goods, some 25% of the amounts granted.
Another two ordinances – CS 25/2003 and CS 30/2003 – had already authorized imports of goods and services for projects with their conclusion scheduled for the period from October 31 this year to April 30, 2004. With the new Ordinance CS-31/2003, which extends this over to the end of 2007, all the requests that had been forwarded to the Foundation will now be met. With this, FAPESP will be attending to all the demand for imported equipment, consumables and services, without failing to comply with, and even surpassing, the target established by it Board of Trustees, for closing the year with net available funds of R$ 580 million: it has reached a little over R$ 600 million.
Imports had been interrupted in August last year, as an emergency measure, on account of the 67.5% depreciation of the real against the dollar, registered up August 2002. Three months later, FAPESP began to authorize, on an exceptional basis, foreign purchases of consumables and replacement parts, but only in the indispensable quantity. In September this year, it published the first ordinance, resuming imports in the amount of up to US$ 5.4 million.
FAPESP recommends researchers to renegotiate prices with the suppliers, so as to attend to the largest possible number of applications, which should be forwarded to the e-mail address consulta_import@fapesp.br. The proposal should include a succinct report describing the stage of development of the project, and the items whose import is indispensable, amongst others. For each one of these items, their description and the quantity should be included, as well as their cost in foreign currency; the reasons that make their import indispensable; and a brief description of the group of equipment of the same nature that is available at the institution.
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