Unicamp approves motion against cuts in research funding

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Rector Marcelo Knobel
Marcelo Knobel: "In times of crisis, no country cuts resources in education and science"

Unicamp will send to the Presidency of the Republic, all Ministries, the National Congress and the Government of São Paulo, a motion by the University against the federal government's cuts in resources for grants from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes). The document was approved on Tuesday (03) by the Chamber of Education, Research and Extension (CEPE) and the Chamber of Administration (CAD) at Unicamp. Dean Marcelo Knobel also announced the creation of a working group to discuss emergency measures to support postgraduate students affected by the contingency.

“The situation is dramatic and we are very concerned about the students and the future of science and technology, which are fundamental areas for the country’s development,” said Knobel. Currently, CNPq and Capes contribute around R$12 million per month to finance scholarships for 5 postgraduate students at Unicamp. “In the short term, the eventual cut of these resources will bring incalculable losses to students and, in the medium term, to the country as a whole”, he considered. “No country in a financial crisis cuts resources in education and science, on the contrary, these are the areas that allow for economic recovery and development.”

Still on Tuesday afternoon, after participating in the meeting at CEPE, the rector went to São Paulo, where he met with the vice-governor, Rodrigo Garcia. “We want to expose the difficult budgetary situation of public universities in São Paulo, which will be further worsened by federal cuts,” he said. “The biggest concern is with students who depend on scholarships to stay at university,” he added.

The CNPq grants Unicamp a total of 2.861 scholarships of different types, offered to secondary and higher education students at technical, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, for the training of human resources in the field of scientific and technological research, and specialists in the development of research and innovation in companies and technological centers.

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Dean Marcelo Knobel and Dean of Research, Munir Skaf, during a press conference this Wednesday (4) to talk about the cuts at CNPq and Capes.

Of this total, 690 scholarships are for doctorates and 488 for master's degrees, supporting the training of human resources at postgraduate level; 698 for scientific initiation and 160 for junior scientific initiation, with the aim of awakening the scientific vocation and encouraging potential talents among undergraduate and primary, secondary and professional education students in the public network, through their participation in scientific or technological research activities; 27 for junior postdoctoral and 6 for senior postdoctoral, aimed at consolidating and updating knowledge; 40 for technological initiation and 4 for technological/industry initiation, aiming to strengthen teams responsible for developing research, development or innovation projects; and 700 productivity and research scholarships aimed at researchers who stand out among their peers, valuing their scientific production.

The scholarships are divided into the following areas: 643 in exact and earth sciences; 507 in engineering; 448 in health; 336 in human sciences; 275 in biological sciences; 268 in agricultural sciences; 179 in linguistics, letters and arts; 143 in applied social sciences; 16 in technological; in addition to 16 more scholarships in other areas. According to the chief of staff, José Antonio Gontijo, at this moment it is not yet possible to know how many grants and which segments will suffer the cuts, which will take place from October onwards, referring to September activities. “But we have already taken measures to face the situation on an emergency basis,” he said.

One of the measures adopted was the designation, on Monday (02), of a working group (GT) aimed at establishing the Emergency Support Program for CNPq Scholarship Holders. It will be up to the GT to define and implement, within thirty days, any subsidy for students, through access to food, housing grants, mental health support and the creation of a support fund. “We are studying alternatives to support students at this time, but we do not know how long this help will be possible”, said the rector, highlighting that any reallocation of internal resources will have to be submitted to the University Council.

In addition to the cuts in the CNPq, there is the suspension, also from September, of the registration of new scholarship holders and the change in validity of scholarships and school fees currently offered by Capes, according to the circular released on Monday (02) by the federal body . At Unicamp, the measure will affect, in September, 31 master's scholarships, 26 doctorate scholarships and 1 postdoctoral scholarship. In May, 17 master's degrees, 23 doctoral degrees and 3 post-doctoral degrees had already been frozen. In June, 17 more were affected, 8 of which were master's degrees and 9 were doctorates.

 “In addition to interrupting ongoing research, the cuts threaten partnerships with strategic sectors of the industry and innovation projects with the private sector”, pointed out the Vice-Rector of Research, Munir Skaf, during the CEPE session that approved the motion. Other participants also spoke out: “It is impossible to make the postgraduate system sustainable without renewing scholarships”, said professor José Claudio Geromel, from the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEEC). “The situation of many students is desperate”, highlighted Patrícia Kawaguchi, representative of the Pro-Association of Postgraduate Students Commission at Unicamp. “Contracts were signed with the CNPq and people programmed their lives based on these contracts”, she added.

Currently, R$400 is paid as a cost allowance for CNPq scientific initiation scholarships (for undergraduate students). Master's researchers earn R$1,5 and doctoral researchers earn R$2,2. In total, Unicamp has 4,8 postgraduate scholarships, who, in addition to CNPq, use other sources of financing, such as Fapesp and Capes.

Read the full motion below:

Motion to the government of the Federative Republic of Brazil

The most recent announcement of a cut in 5.613 postgraduate scholarships, which would be offered by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), is joined by the publication of the Annual Budget Bill, which foresees a reduction of around 50 % of resources allocated to the same body for 2020. These alarming actions reveal a systematic project to dismantle public higher education, science, research and technological development in Brazil. These announced cuts are in addition to other budgetary bottlenecks, which successively began to suffocate federal public universities, the country's main research funding body, CNPq, as well as Finep.

There is no cyclical justification for such an attack against State policies that have been developed for decades in the country, under the most different governments, being the main guarantors of Brazil's development. What is unfolding today represents an unprecedented setback in the country's autonomous development, which, if materialized, will result in irrecoverable and irreversible losses, both economic and social, and which will take decades to be partially reversed. A country without an educated people and quality science cannot consolidate itself as a developed and socially fair nation.

The present policy is the denial of all principles aimed at higher education, research and scientific development built in Brazil over the last 88 years, under the most varied political nuances, since the Provisional Government of Getúlio Vargas.

Decree nº 19.831, of April 11, 1931, in its 1st article, stated that "university education aims to: raise the level of general culture, stimulate scientific investigation in any domain of human knowledge". The inseparability between teaching, research and extension is reaffirmed 57 years later in the 1988 Federal Constitution in its article 207: "Universities enjoy didactic-scientific, administrative and financial and asset management autonomy, and will obey the principle of inseparability between teaching, research and extension". The deep cuts made to CAPES, CNPq and Finep and public university networks, added to the unfounded attacks that research institutes are suffering, prevent the fulfillment of the constitutionally established university mission and generate a worrying obscurantist scenario.

It is worth remembering that both CAPES and CNPq were created in 1951 and are now suffering, 68 years later, unprecedented harassment. The missions of both entities encourage the necessary actions for the development of any country that aims for a dignified future for its people, without media subterfuge. Together, these institutions and the public system of state and federal universities contributed to Brazil becoming internationally respected. These State bodies are the support and guarantee of the successive National Plans for Higher Education, Postgraduate Studies and Scientific and Technological Development, launched during the Ernesto Geisel government, with among their general objectives and guidelines "training researchers for scientific work , in order to enable the formation of nuclei and centers, meeting the sectoral and regional needs of society". Without science and technology, without freedom of thought, there is no long-term sustainable development possible for the country.

The State University of Campinas strongly opposes this dismantling of public higher education and research in Brazil, which constitute the only consensus among all governments, with the exception of the current one, which have followed each other over the last nine decades in our country.

Dean of Unicamp

Campinas, September 04, 2019

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