Mexican Researchers Decry Lack of Support

MEXICO CITY—A recent decision by Mexico's federal government to boost R&D spending has failed to stem growing dissatisfaction in the scientific community here over the lack of public support for science and technology. The government said last month it is diverting 5 billion pesos ($3.8 million) from other public programs to the National Science and Technology Research Council (CONACYT). Half of the supplemental funds are to be used for scientific research and half for technological development. But reaction in the scientific community has been restrained. The new funds do little to close the gap between the $6 million budgeted this year for scientific and technological research projects managed by CONACYT and, for example, the $20 million budgeted in 1981, before Mexico's economy was buffeted by the devalued peso and the worldwide oil glut. "A drop in the bucket," a CONACYT administrator scoffed. "The answer to science and technology development problems quite obviously is not to wait for more money from above, but to look more and more to the private sector for support." Between 1970 and 1980, Mexico increased its science and technology expenditures from 0.1 to 0.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). As late as 1982, when the economic bonanza came to a sudden halt, the goal was still to raise that share to a full percentage point by 1985. Forecasts for the current year put science and technology outlays at less than 0.6 percent of GDP, however, and at no more than $600 million—roughly the same figure recorded every year since 1982. The research portion totals $214 million. Still in Minor Leagues "If the growth rate of the last decade had carried over into the '80s, we'd now be in the major R&D leagues of the semi-industrialized countries," lamented Mario Waissbluth, director of the Center for Technological Innovation at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "No country can afford to spend that little, percentagewise, on S&T and still expect to play a viable role, especially with the technological revolution upon us." Indeed, following a period of high hopes and rapid growth fueled by the 1970s oil boom, Mexican science has fallen on hard times. Government support for science has diminished drastically in real terms, thanks to rampant inflation. The average monthly salary of a researcher in Mexico totaled $2,000 in 1981, for example, but now has dwindled to about $500, Waissbluth said. Nearly 3,000 Mexicans studied at foreign universities in 1982 under an ambitious CONACYT scholarship program; by 1986, that figure had shrunk to 880. In real terms, the 1986 operational budget for the National Autonomous University's Cellular Physiology Institute is about half that of 1981, according to Antonio Peña Diaz, the institute director. Although "we realize that the country is going through a severe crisis and that our university cannot escape from it," he said, uncertainty over continued financial support creates what he termed "a serious problem." According to Waissbluth, "more and more people are getting angry at the situation, not so much because little money is available— they understand that—but because the slice of S&T funds in the national budget pie remains so small, because there is no coherent S&T policy and no long- or even medium-range planning." In an attempt to slow the resulting exodus of researchers from Mexico, the government two years ago created a system under which about 3,000 of Mexico's 15,000 researchers receive bonuses that in some cases double their earnings. Critics say the move comes too late and offers incentives to too few. They also argue that the selection criteria, based heavily on productivity in publishing papers, work against promising young scientists just out of university, do not reward technological research and tend to discourage researchers from teaching. Mexican scientists agree that strengthening ties with their private sector is an important element in pulling R&D out of its current slump. But support from all segments of society is needed to finish the task, they say. Former CONACYT director Edmundo Flores predicts that the government's response will shift once attitudes have changed. "After all, we don't get sufficient support not because the government doesn't like science but because it doesn't understand it," he said. "But for a new idea to take root, it takes a generational change of mind. Therefore progress will continue to be slow." Fischer is a freelance writer in Mexico City.

Mexican Researchers Decry Lack of Support

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of