Fórum Defesa Brasil

Rousseff seeks to make Brazil a power in science and technology
By: Keith Campbell
3rd January 2011

Picture by: Agência Brasil

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff


New Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who was inaugurated on Saturday, has listed “transforming Brazil into a scientific and technological power” as one of the 13 “directives” she has issued for her administration. These directives are listed on the website of the Brazilian presidency.

“The Federal government will expand the resources directed at research and development,” states the directive, which is number eight on the list.

This will include “substantially increasing” the number of study bursaries and grants offered by two funding agencies, namely the Coordination for the Development [literally: Improvement] of Higher Level Personnel and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development.

The research and development areas that will be prioritised under this directive are (in the order in which they are listed): biotechnology and nanotechnology, robotics and new materials, information and communications technology, health and pharmaceutical production, biofuels and renewable energy, agriculture, “semi-arid”, nuclear and space, maritime resources and defence.

There was no indication of what kinds of research and development would be covered by the semi-arid designation. Although most of Brazil is lush, the country does have a semi-arid region in the north east, known as the Sertão, which is also one of its poorest and least developed areas.

Also falling under this directive is the government’s commitment to “digital inclusion” through the expansion of broadband across the entire country, especially to schools.

Improving Brazil’s education system is another of the listed directives, being number seven (it is not clear if there is any significance to the ranking of the directives).

This includes a commitment to improve the quality of education and of teaching in the State schools (currently, these are not high) and to expand the programme for the building of Federal Institutes of Technological Education, with the aim of ensuring that every town with more than 50 000 people will have at least one technical school. The new administration will also seek to increase the number of low income students attending university.

Dilma Rousseff, who is partly of Bulgarian descent, is the first woman to be elected President of Brazil.

Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter