{"id":182194,"date":"2015-04-10T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=182194"},"modified":"2015-05-21T14:13:36","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T17:13:36","slug":"support-for-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/support-for-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Support for science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A survey by the Datafolha Institute shows that 88% of the residents of the state of S\u00e3o Paulo consider it very important that investments be made in science and technology, and 86% believe the government should finance scientific research even if benefits are not realized immediately.\u00a0 And scientists represent the third most admired profession, ranking only behind teachers and physicians.\u00a0 Seventy-seven percent of respondents, however, were unable to recall the name of any research institution, not even one of the university facilities.\u00a0 The survey was commissioned by FAPESP to map the interests of the people of S\u00e3o Paulo as regards science and technology and find out what the public thinks of investments in research and the work of the Foundation.\u00a0 When presented with names of various institutions, 26% said they have heard of FAPESP, but 69% either did not know or did not remember what the Foundation does.<\/p>\n

Interviews were conducted with 3,217 respondents in 138 cities in all 15 mesoregions of the state of S\u00e3o Paulo.\u00a0 \u201cThe high priority people place on support for research and the value they attribute to science as a profession echo the sentiments observed in other countries and encourage the S\u00e3o Paulo scientific community to obtain more and better results that have scientific, social, and economic impact,\u201d observes Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, scientific director of FAPESP.\u00a0 \u201cThe research also points to the need for institutions to make a more vigorous effort to demonstrate results and associate their names with them.\u201d\u00a0 FAPESP President Celso Lafer says, \u201cthe Datafolha survey shows the importance the public attributes to science and its respect for scientists.\u00a0 Secondly, it is evidence of a clear perception that the State has a responsibility to support scientific research, even when it may not have immediate benefits, and that private enterprise could also increase its investments in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to its survey of the general public, Datafolha addressed two other communities by interviewing the 505 researchers who are receiving FAPESP support, as well as 30 opinion-makers, such as professors and journalists.\u00a0 The majority (80%) of the researchers said that, in Brazil, investments in science and technology are less than sufficient.\u00a0 To 64%, companies should finance research more heavily, while 75% cited the government as the main source of funding for scientific activity.\u00a0 \u201cBetter financial resources\u201d and \u201ccredibility\u201d were the key factors underlying the choice of FAPESP made by researchers who are receiving its support, according to the survey.\u00a0 FAPESP assistance to the researchers interviewed was obtained through Doctoral Scholarships (36%); Post-Doctoral Research Grants (30%); Regular Line of Research Project Awards (26%); Master\u2019s Degree Scholarships (26%); Undergraduate Scholarships (22%); Regular Line of Research – Thematic Projects (5%); the Innovative Research in Small Businesses Program (PIPE) (3%); the Young Investigators Awards Program (2%), and others (6%).<\/p>\n

Opinion-makers who were interviewed were only \u201cfairly well\u201d satisfied with scientific research in Brazil.\u201d\u00a0 They mentioned insufficient investment and a lack of tradition in research as negative aspects.\u00a0 They also agreed that the teaching of science in schools needs to improve.\u00a0 There is not enough training, and too few incentives are offered for both teachers and students.\u00a0 However, they recognized that certain positive initiatives have been taken, such as the Scientific Open House,<\/i><\/em> Science Fairs, and the Science Without Borders program.\u00a0 FAPESP was not well known among the opinion-makers but those who said that they do know of the Foundation have a positive image of a serious institution.\u00a0 \u201cThose members of the public who are more directly involved recognize the contribution by FAPESP and emphasize its credibility.\u00a0 In short, the figures confirm that S\u00e3o Paulo taxpayers support FAPESP activities,\u201d Celso Lafer states.<\/p>\n

\"034-037_Datafolha_230-01\"<\/a>In interviews with members of the general public, the declared interest in scientific subjects was high: 67% said they are interested or very interested in science and technology.\u00a0 But 79% agreed with the statement that science and technology are such specialized fields that most people cannot understand them.\u00a0 The percentage who are \u201cvery interested\u201d in science and technology (26% of the total) was lower than for topics like medicine and health (51%), food and consumer affairs (45%), the environment and ecology (39%), religion (38%), sports (32%), and movies, art, and culture (30%).\u00a0 But it was higher than the percentage of those who said they are very interested in fashion (14%), politics (12%) and are curious about celebrities (7%).<\/p>\n

An Important Gap<\/strong>
\nThe gap between interest in science and the difficulty in citing the name of a research institution is nothing new in studies of public perception of science, according to Luisa Massarani, a researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, who has herself conducted several studies of this type.\u00a0 She says that the panorama observed in S\u00e3o Paulo is similar to that of the national scene, as evidenced by surveys carried out in Brazil by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation and by the Museum of Life at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.\u00a0 \u201cWhat we find is that while people express an interest in science, there is an important gap between those who say they are interested in scientific topics and those who actually try to become informed about them,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cAnother point that became obvious in qualitative studies that we did is that there often is no direct correlation in this country between science and actively practicing science.\u00a0 In other words, even today not many people know that Brazil is active in science and that there are Brazilian scientists.\u201d\u00a0 In the opinion of the researcher, an important step has been taken in determining that the public is interested in science, but there is a lot more to be done.\u00a0 \u201cWe have to start with a more specific and realistic notion of what science is, who works with it, where scientific activities are going on, and how science and society are associated with each other,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Researchers and lay people often have different ideas about the nature of scientific activity.\u00a0 In the United States, a survey published in January 2015 by the Pew Research Center compared the opinions of scientists who are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) with those of a group of ordinary citizens.\u00a0 On some topics, the differences were significant.\u00a0 Eighty-seven percent of the researchers stated that climate change is due primarily to human activity, but only 50% of lay people agreed.\u00a0 Similarly, 88% of the scientists stated that genetically modified foods are safe to eat, compared with only 37% of the public in general.\u00a0 The Datafolha survey, too, recorded some differences in perception.\u00a0 The degree of Brazil\u2019s development in scientific research was rated by 44% of S\u00e3o Paulo respondents as \u201cintermediate\u201d and by 39% as \u201cdelayed.\u201d\u00a0 Among scientists, the percentages were 67% for intermediate and 26% for delayed.\u00a0 Among researcher respondents, 60% said that Brazil has won distinction in agriculture and livestock, but only 6% believe that the country in any way stands out in terms of development of new technologies.<\/p>\n

Although S\u00e3o Paulo residents have a less than favorable impression of the quality of Brazilian research, this does not temper their admiration for scientists.\u00a0 The extent of their admiration is 61%, higher than their regard for engineers, journalists, judges, businessmen, and artists.\u00a0 But the researchers themselves take a more critical view of their professional activity.\u00a0 The majority does not think that science as a profession is very attractive to young people because \u201cthe pay is low and the profession enjoys little prestige.\u201d\u00a0 But 80% find that, from a personal standpoint, the profession is very gratifying, and 58% believe that scientists are primarily motivated by a thirst for knowledge.\u00a0 Moreover, 55% say they are satisfied with the degree of scientific development in their fields, compared with 44% who say they are dissatisfied\u20141% gave no answer.\u00a0 Of those who said they are satisfied, 31% cited \u201cinternational recognition or distinction\u201d as the main reason, and 29% mentioned \u201cprogress and new developments in their field of research.\u201d\u00a0 Practically all the researchers interviewed (99%) believe that scientific research is making an important contribution to Brazil\u2019s growth and they advocate the independence of scientists.<\/p>\n

Scientific and technological knowledge was considered by survey respondents as \u201c very useful,\u201d primarily in terms of \u201chealth care and prevention of disease\u201d (70%), \u201cability to understand the world\u201d (51%), and \u201cpreservation of the area around my house as well as the environment\u201d (47%).\u00a0 Opinion makers also emphasized health: most professors and journalists who responded said that when they think of science, they think of health.\u00a0 The topics most closely related to health science, they said, are stem cells, vaccines, cures for diseases, and science laboratories.\u00a0 \u201cThere are a number of studies in other countries and in Brazil that show that most of the media coverage of science is health-related,\u201d Luisa Massarani observes.\u00a0 \u201cWe have even asked that same question of editors and reporters and found that they believe that research in health is closely connected with people\u2019s daily lives.\u00a0 It is in the field of health that the impact of science is perceived, in terms of drugs, vaccines, etc.,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People in S\u00e3o Paulo admire scientists and support investment in research","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[220,226],"coauthors":[98],"class_list":["post-182194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policies-st-en","tag-communication","tag-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182194"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=182194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}