The Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) wants to create a national system for information on Science, Technology and Innovation, in all the Brazilian states, with the objective of creating a database similar to one with FAPESP’s Indicators documents, published in 1998 and 2002. The proposal was presented to the participants in the forums of the Research Support Foundations and Entities of the States and of the Federal District (FAPs) and of the State Secretaries for Science and Technology, who met in Brasilia on May 16th and 17th, and it was immediately taken on board.
A working commission has already been created, made up of representatives of the two forums and of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), and it will have a time limit of two months to formulate methodologies for working and to present a plan of activities. “The database will be to international standards, and its implementation should stimulate the current system for gathering data in each state”, explains Francisco Romeu Landi, FAPESP’s director president and the president of the Forum of the FAPs. The first information, he predicts, may be available within the next two or three years.
At the meeting, also on the agenda was the proposal from the FAPs and Forum of Secretaries to consolidate the National System for Innovation, setting out by strengthening the state systems for Science&Technology. The FAPs seek greater participation in defining the policies for Science&Technology and in sharing out the resources from the Sectorial Funds. “This will be an important strategy for consolidating the small foundations”, Landi explains. A working party made up of representatives of the two forums is to define, with the Center for the Management of Strategic Studies (CGEE), the outlines of this partnership with the federal government.
Forum of the Municipalities
At the meeting in Brasilia, the constitution of the National Forum of Municipal Secretaries for Science&Technology was formalized. Created in December last year, in Vitória, it has the objective of bringing about a closer relationship between the various municipal departments involved with the area and to foster greater closeness to the organs of the federal and state governments. Making up the forum are 12 municipal secretariats for Science&Technology, including, besides Vitoria, those from capital cities like Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and Aracaju and municipalities like São Carlos, from the state of São Paulo and Itajubá, in Minas Gerais.
