sÃo paulo

Brazil's science funding agency is being shaken up as part of broad government changes introduced to coincide with the second term of the country's president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

The new minister of science, Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira, will temporarily head the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). And the administration of the council is being brought closer in line with similar funding agencies abroad.

Cardoso had considered merging the Ministry of Science and Technology with the larger Ministry of Education (see Nature 396, 503; 1998). But he decided to keep them separate, and make the changes inside each.

Bresser Pereira replaced José Israel Vargas, who had headed the science ministry since the government of Cardoso's predecessor, Itamar Franco. José G. Tundisi, a former president of CNPq, is to head the committee responsible for the council's reorganization.

Fernando Reinach, a molecular biologist at the University of São Paulo and a campaigner for reforms, who had been asked to review the new structure of the CNPq, has been appointed by Bresser Pereira as his secretary for science policy (see Nature 392, 647–648; 1998).

The independence from political interference of the CNPq, which was created in the late 1940s, has always been prized by Brazilian scientists. But when the science ministry was created in 1985, it took on responsibility for the agency, creating a source of friction.

The ministry, for example, had three top officials — one for scientific development, one for technological development, and a third for information technology — each of whom was involved in science policy decisions.

Under the new reforms, these will be replaced by three new CNPq vice-presidencies, each working as a separate funding council: one for biomedical research, another for humanities, and another for physical sciences and engineering. According to Reinach, each of these posts will legally have to be filled by a working scientist.

CNPq's previous responsibility for a number of scientific institutes will be taken over by the ministry. “Basically, we are increasing the participation of scientists in the ministry,” says Reinach.

Several scientists will serve on the committee that will draw up the details of the reform, including Moacyr Krieger, president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. Others who have discussed the reform with the minister include biologist Sérgio Ferreira, president of the Brazilian Society for the Development of Science.