{"id":571452,"date":"2026-01-20T10:28:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=571452"},"modified":"2026-01-20T10:28:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:28:32","slug":"budget-amendments-used-as-a-complementary-source-of-funding-for-public-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/budget-amendments-used-as-a-complementary-source-of-funding-for-public-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget amendments used as a complementary source of funding for public universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congressional amendments\u2014a mechanism through which deputies and senators allocate part of the federal budget toward commitments made to state and municipal governments and institutions\u2014have increasingly become an added source of funding for Brazil\u2019s universities. Amendment funds have been used for everything from research grants to building upkeep and major infrastructure works, including new laboratories. The surge in such allocations mirrors a broader expansion of federal budget amendments and has sparked debate among higher-education experts: while on the one hand, the extra funds can help fill gaps in universities\u2019 budgets, on the other, these transfers can be unpredictable\u2014funds may flow one year and vanish the next\u2014and should not be seen as a replacement for long-term, reliable public funding.<\/p>\n

Between 2014 and 2025, the share of universities\u2019 budgets funded through congressional amendments jumped from 0.8% to about 7.2%. This year, Brazil\u2019s 69 federal universities are slated to receive R$7.89 billion under the Annual Budget Law (LOA), with R$571 million coming from lawmakers\u2019 amendments. Although slightly lower than in 2024, the numbers reflect steady growth over the past decade\u2014in 2014, universities received just R$148.42 million through amendments, at a time when their discretionary budget under the LOA was about R$17 billion\u2014more than double today\u2019s level.<\/p>\n

The numbers are from a report released in August by Observat\u00f3rio do Conhecimento, a think tank tied to public-university faculty unions. The data were drawn from the Ministry of Planning\u2019s Integrated Planning and Budget System (SIOP). It\u2019s worth noting that these figures reflect only the initial allocation approved in the Annual Budget Law (LOA), not the funds actually disbursed or fully spent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Ministry of Education\u2019s budget disbursements have shrunk, universities have leaned on congressional amendments as a stopgap. But these funds are nowhere near enough to address the challenges facing universities, which in recent years have expanded enrollment and opened their doors more widely through affirmative-action programs,\u201d says political scientist Mayra Goulart da Silva, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) who heads the think tank. \u201cOn top of that, budget amendments are hostage to political winds, and there\u2019s no guarantee they\u2019ll continue from one year to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Economist Let\u00edcia In\u00e1cio, who leads research at Observat\u00f3rio do Conhecimento, notes another trend: \u201cAn ever-growing share of public money in Brazil is being funneled into these amendments.\u201d In\u00e1cio has authored two studies on the subject, the first in 2023, which already showed universities\u2019 rising dependence on this form of funding. In 2025, the government has earmarked R$50.4 billion for congressional amendments, up from just R$9.6 billion in 2014. \u201cThis kind of funding shifts new burdens onto university leadership and research groups, who now have to engage in political negotiations with lawmakers\u2014something that wasn\u2019t part of their role before,\u201d she points out.<\/p>\n

This year, Brazil\u2019s federal universities are projected to receive R$302 million through caucus amendments\u2014funds directed collectively by lawmakers from the same state to a given institution\u2014and another R$269 million from individual amendments made by single members of Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongressional amendments, once limited to one-off projects like outfitting museums, are now being used to cover essential needs,\u201d says biomedical scientist Helena Nader, chair of the Brazilian Academy of Science (ABC). \u201cThe concern is that these funds, which should be supplemental, are increasingly substituting for funding that ought to be guaranteed by law,\u201d she warns.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Brazil\u2019s Federal Supreme Court (STF) temporarily froze these legislative allocations to review transparency standards\u2014a review that extended to public universities. In January 2025, the Court ordered federal and state governments to issue, within 30 days, clear rules for how universities and their supporting foundations\u2014nonprofit entities that often manage amendment funds\u2014must report their use of allocated funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the Court\u2019s requirements was that supporting foundations publicly disclose the projects funded with amendments,\u201d notes economist Let\u00edcia In\u00e1cio. As a result, in February the Ministry of Education (MEC) issued new regulations detailing how federal universities and their foundations must use and account for this money. In\u00e1cio also identified the ten federal universities slated to receive the most amendment funding this year. Leading the list is the University of Bras\u00edlia Foundation at R$65.08 million, followed by the Federal University of Esp\u00edrito Santo (UFES) at R$63.8 million and the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) Foundation at R$56 million (see chart<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n <\/picture>Alexandre Affonso \/ Pesquisa FAPESP<\/span>\n

Uses of amendment funding <\/strong>
\nIn a 2023 article in the journal Pr\u00e1ticas em Gest\u00e3o P\u00fablica Universit\u00e1ria<\/em>, researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and Fluminense Federal University (UFF) reported that between 2019 and 2022, UFF received R$132.72 million through both individual and caucus amendments. The university is also among the ten institutions projected to receive the most amendment funding in 2025.<\/p>\n

Most of the funds (76.8%) went to campus restructuring and modernization projects, such as building renovations and upgrades. Another 12.4% supported undergraduate, research, outreach, and graduate programs, while 10.8% was spent on operational needs, including furniture and equipment purchases and payments to contractors. The findings were based on data from Tesouro Gerencial<\/em>, the Federal Government\u2019s budget-tracking system.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt UFF, one major challenge was resuming construction projects launched under the Restructuring and Expansion of Federal Universities (REUNI) Program\u2014which had been frozen since 2013,\u201d says university-administration specialist Gisele Fernandes, a staff member in UFF\u2019s Planning Office and lead author of the study. \u201cThanks to the budget amendments\u2014particularly the caucus ones\u2014we managed to pull together larger funding packages, complete unfinished buildings, and equip laboratories,\u201d she explains. Fernandes is currently on secondment at the Benjamin Constant Institute, where she serves as director of Planning and Administration.<\/p>\n

One of the examples highlighted in the study was the resumed construction on UFF\u2019s new School of Medicine building in 2019. The project had stalled for lack of funding but was revived with about R$25 million from a caucus amendment, secured through negotiations by the university\u2019s senior leadership. The building was finally completed in December 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmid repeated budget cuts, amendments have taken on a strategic role as tools of institutional resilience and a way to keep infrastructure and long-term projects moving forward,\u201d says Fernandes. In 2024, she organized a budget forum at UFF to discuss best practices in managing amendment funds with faculty, staff, and students. In June 2025, the university issued new regulations, a practical handbook, and an interactive online dashboard showing in detail how amendment money is spent.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, between 2016 and 2023, Brazil\u2019s four federal rural universities used most of their individual amendment funding for campus restructuring and upkeep. Smaller shares went to teaching, research and outreach programs, and student support initiatives such as need-based retention scholarships, according to a July 2024 article in the journal Revista Jur\u00eddica da UFERSA<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n \n \n \n <\/picture>Alexandre Affonso \/ Pesquisa FAPESP<\/span><\/div>
\n

The study focused specifically on individual amendments and on funds that were actually disbursed. The Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ) topped the list, spending R$37.6 million in amendment funds during the study period; next came the Rural University of the Amazon (UFRA), at R$11.3 million; the Federal Semiarid Rural University (UFERSA) in Rio Grande do Norte, at R$9 million; and, in fourth place, the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), at R$5 million.<\/p>\n

The study noted that lawmakers\u2019 priorities were largely focused on restructuring, expansion, and modernization\u2014categories that represented 48% of amendments at UFERSA and 39% at UFRA. Institutional upkeep ranked second, while only UFERSA received amendment money for student support (11%). \u201cThese days, obtaining parliamentary amendments has become a matter of survival,\u201d says public-budget specialist Adailson Pinho de Ara\u00fajo, a law professor at UFERSA and the study\u2019s lead author.<\/p>\n

In a separate study, Ara\u00fajo examined individual amendment allocations to all 69 federal universities between 2015 and 2024, intersecting data from SIOP, Brazil\u2019s Transparency Portal, the Integrated Financial Administration System, and Siga Brasil. He found that nearly 39% of the money went to institutional upkeep and administrative management, 31.1% to infrastructure and expansion, and 26.3% to teaching, research, and outreach. The rest was divided among teaching hospital construction (2.6%), student assistance (0.4%), and what he classifies as \u201cspecial or emergency projects\u201d\u2014such as the reconstruction of the National Museum at UFRJ (0.3%).<\/p>\n

The Federal University of Tocantins (UFT), expected to be among the top recipients of amendment funding in 2025 with R$26.3 million projected, has also channeled most of its funding to construction. \u201cCapital funding fell steeply after 2014\u2014from over R$10 million to about R$1 million,\u201d says UFT\u2019s deputy dean, Marcelo Leineker. Following repeated cuts from the Ministry of Education, he explains, the university turned to congressional amendments to finish buildings, sustain research and outreach programs, and, more recently, to fund a new teaching hospital. The project, budgeted at around R$300 million, received R$5 million through budget amendments in 2024 and is slated for another R$25 million this year.<\/p>\n

According to Leineker, UFT has developed a portfolio of proposals to present directly to lawmakers. \u201cBecause the state\u2019s population is relatively small, there\u2019s close dialogue between federal representatives and local institutions. Every year-end, we sit down with our caucus delegation and present our priorities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

State universities are also turning to lawmakers for supplemental funding. At S\u00e3o Paulo State University (UNESP), Bauru campus, Juarez Xavier\u2014director of the School of Architecture, Arts, Communication and Design\u2014turned to individual state legislative amendments when his research group ran short of money. Xavier heads NeoCriativa, the Center for Studies and Observation in Creative Economy. Through individual amendments sponsored by two state legislators, he secured roughly R$250,000 for a psychosocial support program for Black students and another R$150,000 to set up a podcast lab focused on race relations. Both initiatives also funded scholarships for students admitted through affirmative-action quotas and wrapped up last year. Because Xavier already knew the lawmakers, who are active supporters of racial equity, they invited him to pitch projects on the topic.<\/p>\n

This year, he has launched a new initiative with UNESP TV, also backed by state-level amendments. \u201cThese funds, while no substitute for a structured public program, have supported Black researchers and built a base for future institutional funding. They\u2019re a small but important step toward overcoming a long-standing inequity in Brazilian science,\u201d Xavier says.<\/p>\n

The story above was published with the title “Alternative funding<\/strong>” in issue 354 of August\/2025.<\/p>\n

Scientific articles<\/strong>
\nSILVA, G. S. S & OLIVEIRA, A. J. B. Aloca\u00e7\u00e3o de recursos or\u00e7ament\u00e1rios provenientes de emendas parlamentares: O caso da universidade federal fluminense<\/a>. Revista Pr\u00e1ticas em Gest\u00e3o P\u00fablica Universit\u00e1ria<\/strong>, Vol. 7, no. 2. July 2023.
\nARA\u00daJO, P. A et al.<\/em> Distribui\u00e7\u00e3o de emendas parlamentares individuais em universidades federais rurais (2016\u20132023)<\/a>. Rejur \u2013 Revista Jur\u00eddica da Ufersa<\/strong>. Vol. 8, no. 16. July 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although they help fill budget gaps, researchers are concerned about growing dependence on the mechanism","protected":false},"author":684,"featured_media":559502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[234],"coauthors":[2721],"class_list":["post-571452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policies-st-en","tag-finance","position_at_home-sumario"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571452","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\/684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":571469,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571452\/revisions\/571469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571452"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=571452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}