The growing competition in Brazilian science: rites of passage, stress and burnout

Brazil's scientific community is under pressure. Each year there is an increase in its contribution to international science and in the number of students who are trained to do research and teach at an advanced level. Most of these activities are carried out in state and federal universities, but with government funding that has decreased by more than 70 percent since 1996. Interviews with graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and professors in one university department with a strong research tradition illustrate the level of stress engendered by the conflict between increasing competition and diminishing resources, and serve to underscore the negative effects on creativity and on the tendency to choose science as a career

Productivity versus promised results: one of the dilemmas of biotechnology in Brazil

In 1983 a new funding program - PADACT ("Program de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico") - was created in Brazil to stimulate the development of research projects related to what was established as technological priorities. In this paper 3 features of the Biotechnology/Health subprogram of PADCT were studied: a) to what extent productivity of the leaders of the research projects affected the way they were evaluated by the award panel, b) the conflict of interest that might result from the composition of the award panel, and c) the final impact of the program on science and technology. In our sample of 210 submitted projects, 62 were funded. The data suggest that the selection of projects did not ensure a better funding for the more productive research leaders. The presence on the award panel of at least one member from the same institution of a given project increased the chance of its approval but, after approval, it had no influence on the amount of funds granted. In a subsample of 21 scientists, support to 24 projects did not increase the productivity level and 4 products in a preliminary phase of development were reported. The issue of trying to solve problems in areas where there is no established scientific competence is discussed