Created Reflection Group on the future of FCT – publico

                 

                         
                     

                 

 
 

The Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, has this afternoon Tuesday in Lisbon, the first meeting with the Reflection Group on the Future of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) now that the end of December ends the mandate of the current direction of this institution, which is the main public financing and evaluation of scientific research in Portugal.

Creating this focus group by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES), consisting of about 30 researchers, aims to stimulate discussion on “guidelines that should govern the near future FCT in dialogue with the scientific community,” reads the document with the guiding lines for the group, signed by the Minister and the Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Maria Fernanda Rollo.

The current president of the FCT, the researcher Maria Armenia Carrondo, replaced in April this year the physician and researcher Manuel Seabra, who was fired this month. Was mandated to complete the term of Miguel Seabra, that would end at the end of December this year.

Miguel Seabra was one of the main faces of the science policies of Pedro Passos Coelho government, which began in mid-2011, and its Minister of Education and Science, Nuno Crato, by the then president of the FCT was the main target of the protests of the scientific community. First, the research fellows took to the streets in demonstrations against significant cuts in the number of scholarships. Shortly thereafter, the scientific research centers strongly criticized the latest assessment they have undergone – for the allocation of funding by 2020 – due to its lack of quality, the change of rules during the process and the definition at the outset that about half of the centers “chumbaria”, which would mean that these cases receive no money or receive very little.

The document on the creation of the think tank points out that the challenge to follow scientific policies by FCT in last four years, which were based on ‘process’ evaluation ‘loose’, “performed on a discretionary basis” with “benefit objectives doubtful for the national scientific system.” “The negative impacts of the options and assessment schemes and financing were predictable and inevitable, reaching direct investment in advanced training of human resources [doctoral and post-doctoral] and scientific employment, with impact on the forced emigration of some . the most qualified human resources, “reads

But the whole political situation of the years of austerity has taken its toll on scientific research in Portugal: the money spent by the FCT increased from approximately EUR 490 million in 2010 to 390 million in 2014; the gross domestic product invested in science increased from 1.6% to 1.3% during the same period; and the total money (public and private) that the country has applied for scientific research decreased by 530 million euros, also in this period, summarizes the document.

After 30 days, the group reflection report on the principles that should govern the FCT strategy and the appointment of the new board. In the guidelines for the focus group, the MCTES established as priorities “regain the confidence of the scientific community and society in general in the assessment and allocation of funding to research and development.” Ensure “proper evaluation” of scientific institutions and the stability of funding of research projects and activities and to reaffirm the FCT as “central body in the Portuguese scientific and technological system” are also priorities defined by MCTES.