Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva alarmed many of Brazil's élite last year, as his campaign for the country's presidency cruised towards a comfortable victory. A left-wing former trade-union leader with the popular touch, Lula had a clear mandate for change — and scientists were among those who were anxious about his plans.
Almost six months into his administration, however, Lula has maintained a steady course in his handling of Brazil's economy, burdened as it is by huge international debts. He has also reassured the scientific community (see page 379). Some researchers still question the qualifications of science minister Roberto Amaral, but ministries and science agencies are being filled with senior officials who have strong credentials, and so far the federal science budget has been protected from cuts that are being forced elsewhere.
Lula is also extremely charismatic. Although he is no intellectual, having quit formal education at a relatively early age, academics and others in the scientific establishment have been impressed by his ability both to focus on essentials and to motivate others to deal with them. All the more reason, then, for Lula to move quickly to seize a key opportunity for Brazil: to turn its significant strengths in both physical and biological sciences into long-term economic advantage.
Despite severe problems with Brazil's education system and intolerable social disparities, there is no shortage of young talent keen to study science in universities, and the annual output of PhDs has risen to more than 6,000. In a huge country where individual states play as big a role as the federal government in stimulating economic development, São Paulo stands out not only for its commitment to its state university and to science funding, but also for its strategic approach to science and technology. This includes creating conditions to favour the launch of high-tech companies, attracting foreign industrial investment, and support for research centres that will not only deliver high-quality science but also foster commercial spin-offs.
Such an approach cannot be duplicated at a national level even in the medium term, as some states have only a rudimentary science base. But Lula has stated his desire to widen access to university education and to spread research funding around the country, away from the wealthy southern states. His ministers, meanwhile, are publicly backing plans to establish new centres of excellence (see page 372). These are laudable goals, but a balance is needed: Lula will limit his country's potential if he dissipates such initiatives too widely across his territories, or lowers the thresholds of university entry too far.
Above all, Lula needs to take a personal lead in developing a national strategy for innovation and development, and should establish a better structure to assist him. A national council for science and technology is already in place, with representatives from key ministries including that of science and technology. But it meets infrequently, and its role remains to be established.
Lula needs an adviser who has scientific clout plus the insight to understand how technology not only depends on basic science but can also be stimulated and exploited to national ends — something along the lines of the director of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy, perhaps. That person should have direct access to the president and be given a key responsibility: to work with the national science and technology council and others to develop a ten-year vision by which top-down initiatives, ranging from fiscal incentives to directed research funding, can complement the bottom-up motivation that exists aplenty in Brazil's universities. If he can pick the right individual for the job, Lula could enable Brazil to become the economic powerhouse that it deserves to be.
