By Paulo Isnard Ribeiro de Almeida, with the collaboration of Lucia Klein and José Sávio Junqueira Henrique (Source: CD Brazil in Focus)

Brazil and Singapore have an enormous potential for cooperation in the domain of science and technology. Efforts are under way for the signing of a Framework Agreement on Science and Technology to foster exchange of researchers, students and cooperation between scientific institutions in the two countries.

The history of science and technology in Brazil goes back to the early 20th century with the research work of two great scientists: the medical hygienist Dr. Oswaldo Cruz, who pioneered experimental medicine in the Country and was responsible for the first initiatives in the area of health and sanitation, and Carlos Chagas, who contributed to basic research the great discovery of the disease which bears his name. In the agricultural area, the Campinas Agronomic Institute (IAC) - founded by King Pedro II in 1887 - turned its activities at the beginning of this century to the solution of problems in the sector and in the 1920s, the basic research carried out there contributed to the genetic improvement of coffee and cotton crops. Today Brazil has around 60,000 active scientists and technologists and is among the twenty Countries with the greatest number of scientific articles published international journals.

This science and technology universe only began to gain a structure when the National Research Council was set up, at present called the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Committee for Postgraduate Courses in Higher Education (CAPES) in the early 1950s. In 1969, the National Science and Technology Development Fund (FNDCT) was set up, which has been administered ever since by the Studies and Projects Funding Body (Finep). The evolution of those agencies for the development and management of science and technology in the Federal Government generates the formulation of the National Science and Technology Development System (SNDCT).

Investing around 0.7% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Science and Technology, the federal government consolidated academic research in the Country in the mid-eighties. There are around 60,000 active scientists and technologists in Brazil. Although this is still a small number compared to the population of Brazil, it represents significant progress compared to previous decades and third world nations.

The main research centres in the Country are in public universities. Most of the postgraduate courses which train our researchers and the co-ordinators of research carried out are concentrated therein. Most of the 15,000 PhDs in Brazil work in universities.

The public universities also concentrate the greatest number of first degree courses, currently around a thousand courses. In Latin America, this pattern of institutionalising postgraduate studies and carrying out research distinguishes Brazil from other Countries. In comparative terms, Brazil is among the twenty Countries with the greatest number of scientific articles published in international journals, ahead of Countries such as Austria, Poland, Korea or Taiwan.

Consequently it is the universities themselves which generate Brazilian scientific production and, within this universe, public bodies are far more proficient than private educational and research institutions. Within the pattern of public universities, the State universities of São Paulo play a leading role, contributing almost two-thirds of the Country's scientific production and training of researchers with doctorates.

At State level, several research and development institutes were created in the seventies - Cetec in Minas Gerais, Ceped in Bahia, Cientec in Rio Grande do Sul, Itep in Pernambuco, among others, and these joined the traditional Technology Research Institute (IPT) and the Butantã Institute in São Paulo, IAC in Campinas, the National Technology Institute (INT) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro. Their operation concentrates on technology problems with a state or regional scope, and their operation covers terms of technological areas and they seek to reduce the gap between the supply of academic research and the demand for knowledge by industrial sectors.

Other research and development institutes operate at national level, aimed at sectors or areas of specific knowledge. Examples of this are the cases of Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa) (Brazilian Farming Research Company) and the IAC, in the area of agriculture and cattle raising; Fiocruz and the Ezequiel Dias Institute, in the Health area; and the National Space Research Institute (INPE) in the area of space research.

The processes of organisational management gave a boost for the creation of research and development centres geared towards the area of Administration, such as the Cristiano Otoni Foundation and the Dom Cabral Foundation, among others.

The occupation of the space between research and production mainly led the public universities to make an institutional adjustment in order to guide negotiations with the private industrial sector, for the purpose of carrying out research work in industry. University foundations appeared on the institutional scene, with powers to sign contracts and agreements without the bureaucratic restrictions on public bodies. Examples of this are the José Bonifácio Foundation and the Coppetec Foundation, both linked with the Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ); Funcamp, linked with the Campinas State University (Unicamp); Fundep, linked with the Minas Gerais Federal University (UFMG); and FUB linked with the University of Brasília (UNB).

The strategy of the Ministry of Science and Technology for coming years foresees a substantial increase in expenditure in the sector, mainly in technology research, which must be increased from 0.7% to around 1.5% of the GDP at the turn of the century, including resources in the private sector.