Four years ago, scientists and academics across Brazil celebrated when former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Now, researchers are expressing palpable relief that da Silva officially won re-election against Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio Bolsonaro, on 25 October.
Since taking office in January 2023, da Silva, who is described as centre-left to left-wing, has ‘fulfilled – either entirely or at least partially – all of his campaign promises in the fields of education, science and technology’, Antônio Miller Crotti, an organic chemist at the University of São Paulo, tells Chemistry World.
Crotti points to a ‘historic upward adjustment’ in the value of scholarships and research grants provided by the Brazilian government, which he describes as having ‘been frozen for years’. In addition, funds were released from the National Fund for Science and Technology Development during da Silva’s term, Crotti notes. ‘This represented a massive achievement,’ he states.
Leading up to the election, a letter from Brazilian scientists supporting da Silva’s candidacy for president gathered more than 20,000 signatures.
‘Lula’s victory brings a sense of relief, not only to chemists but to all professors and researchers in the public higher education system – all of whom would have been directly affected by the changes proposed by Flávio Bolsonaro,’ Crotti continues. He explains that the younger Bolsonaro had plans to introduce tuition fees for undergraduate and graduate programmes that are currently offered free of charge at federal public universities.
Crotti says another of Bolsonaro’s proposals was to transfer federal universities, which are currently under the country’s Ministry of Education and Culture, to the Ministry of Science and Technology, which receives BRL252 billion (£35 billion) less in funding. That would have meant ‘a drastic reduction’ in investment in these universities, he suggests.
‘With Lula’s re-election, investments in science and research are likely to remain at their current levels,’ Crotti says. He does not expect that there will be any increase in funding for scientific research, given that Congress is currently controlled by the opposition party. ‘Lula’s proposals will either fail to pass or will depend heavily on his ability to navigate political negotiations,’ he adds.
Fernando Cássio, an education policy researcher at the University of São Paulo who is a chemist by training, asserts that da Silva was ‘the only candidate who genuinely supports research universities and recognises the strategic role of science in national development’. He says de Silva has demonstrated these values in his previous three terms and in contrast describes the younger Bolsonaro as ‘the son of a former president who consistently disparaged scientists and scientific evidence to promote science-denialist positions on issues such as the environment, public health and public policy, to name just a few’.
‘The Brazilian chemistry community is part of this process and will benefit significantly from President Lula’s re-election,’ says Aldo Zarbin, a materials chemist at the Federal University of Paraná and former president of the Brazilian Chemical Society. ‘Now, we must focus to ensure that, over the next four-year term, President Lula addresses certain remaining issues so that we can reach funding equivalent to 2% of the GDP for Brazilian science. We still need to increase resources for the various research groups spread across the country, boost funding for universities, foster research within the private sector, and expand the number of scholarships for graduate students, among other initiatives. We know that with Lula in the presidency, we have an interlocutor who can help make these things happen.’
This will be da Silva’s fourth term as president and he is expected to begin his new term on 5 January.
