{"id":65878,"date":"2000-07-19T12:20:51","date_gmt":"2000-07-19T15:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=65878"},"modified":"2015-08-19T16:39:02","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T19:39:02","slug":"good-science-good-technology-and-good-publicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/good-science-good-technology-and-good-publicity\/","title":{"rendered":"Good science, good technology, and good publicity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The publication by Nature<\/em> of the story on the genome of Xylella fastidiosa<\/em> represents a milestone in the history of science in Brazil. The team of almost 200 researchers did a job of the highest quality, and put Brazil\u2019s science into the international headlines<\/a>. The NY Times<\/em> highlighted the entry of \u201ca surprising new actor in a field dominated by the developed nations\u201d, and Nature<\/em> praised \u201cBrazil\u2019s determination to enter the post-genome era on an equal footing with scientists of the richer countries.\u00a0 The Economist<\/em> declares that Brazil has now become known for \u201cSamba, football and… genomics\u201d.\u00a0 Good news about Brazil has not often been the reason for so much international attention. Besides helping Brazilian scientists recover their self esteem, the achievement shows how the success of a post-graduate policy aimed at the formation of scientific personnel, with quality determined by international standards. Without this, how would it have been possible to assemble a team of over 200 for this enterprise?\u00a0 Fapesp had a decisive role in perceiving the right moment for creating a new way of organizing scientific activity in Brazil. The federal agencies were equally important, supporting the formation of these researchers, former grant-holders from Capes ( Coordination for The Improvement of Higher Level Personnel) and the CNPq( National Council for Technological and Scientific Development), as well as the public universities which house almost the totality of research scientists.\u00a0 The result highlights the importance of continued governmental investment in science and technology, and of support for basic science and the formation of personnel. These are things that call for decades of effort, in which the role of the State is irreplaceable.<\/p>\n

To combine basic science with practice has been a constant challenge for Fapesp. The Foundation has just created the program called Partnership for Innovation in Aerospace Science and Technology<\/a>. Fapesp used the opportunity of Embraer\u2019s imminent decision to set up a new plant for production and technology development and, in addition, its desire to intensify its partnerships with universities and research institutes. Fapesp\u2019s program, aimed at any companies in the aerospace sector, was an important factor in Embraer\u2019s decision to open its new factory in Gavi\u00e3o Peixoto, S\u00e3o Paulo, a state which is the natural habitat for this kind of activity in Brazil. Besides the ITA, the Technological Institute of Aeronautics and the CTA (Aerospace Technology Center, which gave birth to Embraer, the state has the INPE (National Institute for Space Research), and the S\u00e3o Paulo universities have noteworthy activities in this field.\u00a0 In common with the example of Xylela<\/em>, Embraer is the result of decades of accumulated efforts of personnel formation, always using international excellence standards and State support. It seems that Francis Bacon had some reason in pointing out that \u201cno action of good government is more valuable than enriching the world with trustworthy and fertile knowledge\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 1955, when the creation of Fapesp was being discussed, Jos\u00e9 Reis pointed out in an article in the magazine Revista Anhembi (V. XVIII, n. 50, p. 278 \u2013 cited in S. Motoyama\u2019s Fapesp \u2013 Uma Hist\u00f3ria de Pol\u00edtica Cient\u00edfica e Tecnol\u00f3gica<\/em> [A History of Scientific and Technological Policy]) that it would be \u201cnecessary for the Foundation to make it a point of honor present the public with sincere reports\u2026And these reports should not a jumble of figures or names, but living displays of the plans and projects carried out, so that the existence of a true spirit of support for science should be perceived\u2026\u201d. Well, the great Jos\u00e9 Reis was describing almost exactly the magazine Pesquisa Fapesp<\/em>, which does what the master recommended: publicize the actions of the Foundation for the public, in a clear and accessible manner. That was why we were even happier to see Pesquisa Fapesp<\/em> awarded precisely the Jos\u00e9 Reis Prize for the Publicizing of Science, granted by the CNPq. The team responsible for Pesquisa Fapesp<\/em> is to be congratulated above all for having constructed in these five years an agile and very visible magazine, which highlights \u201cin a lively manner, the plans and projects that are supported by the Foundation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz<\/strong>
\nPresident of FAPESP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good science, good technology, and good publicity","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":0,"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":[158],"tags":[],"coauthors":[566],"class_list":["post-65878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65878","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\/254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65878"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=65878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}