“Pseudo-intellectuals” of a “Buenos Aires caste” parasitic on the State? Or penniless researchers from the South American country with the most Nobel science prizes? Argentine science is in panic mode, with funding dried up under the austerity of ultraliberal Javier Milei. And already, research projects are at a standstill.
Alejandro Nadra’s bacteria will wait. In the cramped shambles of his office at the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), between boxes, storage bins, a desk crumbling under test tubes, the biologist, who explores the protein-DNA interaction in link with pathogenicity, describes research “on the verge of collapse”.
“We no longer have anything to buy (…) So as my inputs run out, either someone who has some left lends me some, or I stop this experiment,” says he told AFP.
The “anarcho-capitalist” Milei, elected at the end of 2023 against a backdrop of out-of-control inflation (211% in 2023), immediately set out on a crusade against public spending. Initially freezing the 2024 research budget. And despite subsequent adjustments, spending on science and technology fell by 32.7% in real value year-on-year, according to the Iberoamerican Center for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (CIICTI).
“Researchers are leaving”
The granting of funds to projects has dried up, and salaries (1,170,000 gross pesos, or 1,180 dollars for an assistant researcher) had fallen in June by 25% to 30% over one year, according to the Network of science and technology institutions, which also notes 450 research positions lost since December.
“Researchers are leaving, no longer applying for scholarships or positions, because they can no longer make a living” from research, laments Alejandro Nadra. “And if you are lucky enough to win one of the remaining scholarships, if after the lab you don’t have the inputs to work, you are reduced to doing bioinformatics…”
“This is the first time that I see that grants, won (during calls for projects), not only are not received, but we are told: ‘you will not receive them’”, Edith is moved. Kordon, head of laboratory at IFIBYNE, the (public) institute of physiology, molecular biology and neuroscience. Where she works on breast cancer prevention. And “what rage” against research, saddens Mr. Nadra.
In his crusade against the “enemy state”, Milei does not mince his words against public funding of research. Again in September, he attacked “so-called scientists and intellectuals, who believe that having a university degree makes them superior beings, and therefore that we should all subsidize their vocation.”
Several times, he mocked CONICET (the “Argentinian CNRS”), his favorite target, which he has in the past said he wanted to privatize. “How productive are they? What have its scientists produced?”
The world of research recalls the Argentinian tradition of scientific excellence, with three Nobel Prizes: in physiology and medicine in 1947 then 1984, and in chemistry in 1970. All three from the UBA.
Last month, a Conicet researcher, Florencia Cayrol, was awarded the prestigious Global Research Award from the American Society of Hematology, for her work on lymphomas.
Alarmed Nobels
In March, 68 Nobel Prize winners wrote to President Milei to express alarm at a “dramatic devaluation” of Argentine science, through the elimination of scholarships and jobs, leading the system “to the edge of a dangerous precipice.”
As is often the case, the presidency qualified Milei’s remarks a posteriori, with the presidential spokesperson assuring in response to the Nobels that the executive “will always focus on science and technology”. Moreover, “the president is himself an academic who has published dozens of publications.”
But it “valorizes discoveries allowing concrete improvements to society”, he added, with a focus on “the bioeconomy and artificial intelligence” and “not research of doubtful usefulness”, pointing the finger at certain sciences humanities or gender studies.
The fact remains that for biochemist Lino Barañao, who was Minister of Science and Technology for 12 years, “never in the recent history of Argentina has there been such a drastic reduction in the scientific budget.”
Last week, the executive announced a boost of around $106,000 to Conicet. “Insignificant. It doesn’t change anything,” said Jorge Aliaga, renowned physicist and former dean of the Faculty of Exact Sciences at UBA interviewed by AFP.
