Caracas

Argentina hasn't enjoyed much continuity of late. So hard-pressed scientists are relieved that newly elected president Néstor Kirchner plans to leave the country's top scientific administrator in place.

Kirchner's administration will retain Eduardo Charreau as the president of the National Council for Science and Technology (CONICET), the country's main science agency. “It's the first time in history that CONICET authorities won't change with a new president,” says Charreau, a molecular endocrinologist and former director of the Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine in Buenos Aires.

Tulio Del Bono, a political ally of the president, has been appointed secretary of science and technology, overseeing CONICET. Del Bono, an engineer and former rector of the National University of San Juan, helped Kirchner on science and technology aspects of his campaign — most notably, a bold pledge to increase total spending on research and development from 0.4% to 1.0% of economic output by 2006.

This year, the Argentinian government will spend about $400 million on supporting an estimated 21,000 researchers, including about 3,500 scientists at 116 CONICET laboratories.

CONICET's budget for 2003 is up 30% in Argentinian pesos to a total of $80 million — still little more than half the $150 million it received two years ago, before the drastic devaluation of the peso. But Charreau admits that much more is needed to rescue research from the impact of the devaluation and associated high inflation. “Frankly,” he says, “the system is beat up and needs an urgent budgetary reactivation.”

Charreau says his biggest challenge has been simply to “keep the doors of its institutions open” — for which Argentinian scientists thank him and departing science and technology secretary Julio Luna.

Del Bono says his main aim will be to attract more private money into research, to address social and economic problems. “Our emphasis and specific instructions are to fortify science and technology and to ensure that production coming out of this system can be rapidly applied,” he says.

Top research priorities will be health, agriculture and livestock, and sustainable development of natural resources, he says. He wants to reduce dependency on imported medicine, for example, by supporting scientists who develop generic drugs.

But Del Bono insists that the emphasis on applied research won't be allowed to hurt basic research at CONICET, which he calls “the spinal cord of our system”.

Scientists are cautiously optimistic about the new team. “We are all hopeful,” says Conrado Varroto, director of Argentina's space agency in Buenos Aires. “The new authorities, in principle, recognize the importance that science and technology has for the development of the country.”

→ http://www.conicet.gov.ar

→ http://www.secyt.gov.ar