FAP-DF suspends research notices and the scientific community requests explanations

Published 10/25/2021 4:05 PM / Updated 10/25/2021 4:09 PM

Established the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) with the Brazilian Society for Biotechnology (SBBIOTEC) and the National Association of Embrapa Researchers (ANPE) petition To request the return of two pending notices from the Foundation for Research Support of the Federal District (FAP-DF). The initiative mobilizes members of the scientific community in the Federal Capital to inquire as to why notifications are interrupted before the deadline with research proposals still without analysis or response.

“We are urgently questioning the insufficiency of public notices issued this year and, worse, by suspending two of them, notices 03/2021 (induced order) and 04/2021 (automatic order) for the last two rounds,” the letter says. The petition’s creator, Andrea Maranhão, a professor at the University of Brasilia’s (UnB) Institute of Biology (UnB), explains that the concern is also about the future of research in the Federal District. “At the federal level, we’re experiencing reductions in incentive for research and science. Here, at DF, our last hope is FAP-DF,” he says.

He adds, “We’ve had quite a few notices this year and two notices have been put on hold before the deadline. What we’re asking is that these notices don’t get put on hold and that they meet the deadlines and analyze all the proposals made. It’s just to meet something that’s already been set,” the teacher says.

On Tuesday (26/10), the Entities Letter should be read during a meeting with the FAP-DF Board of Directors. “This situation is very worrying, mainly because of the emerging new researchers. We are retarded and we are losing great minds due to a lack of encouragement,” Andrea denounces.

In the letter of the signatories below, the entities commented that they wanted to have a dialogue with the government and with the FAP-DF. “Therefore we reaffirm our commitments in defense of science and technology in the Federal District, and make ourselves available to contribute to this and other demands for scientific and technological development by the GDF (Government of the Federal District). -DF and this Government, in the person of Governor Ibanés Rocha, Director – President and Council The top of the FAP-DF, that the DF’s counter-terrorism and counter-incentive, is created as real state policy, not government policy.”

Evaluation

Deputy Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Economic Development, Science, Technology, Environment and Tourism (CDESCTMAT) of the Legislative Chamber of the Federal District (CLDF), District Deputy Daniel Donizet (PL) informed the committee that complaints about FAP-dF are arriving. “Until the last session, this issue had not yet entered the agenda,” he said. However, the congressman stressed that, this week, the topic should be discussed due to the placement of notices. “We support the research and know its importance at the federal and provincial levels,” he added.

Regional Secretary of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) and Professor at the University of Brasilia, Sonia Pau, highlights the damage done to the development of research. “I imagine the suspension is due to the fact that I don’t have enough resources to pay by the end of the notice. Now, this is horrific for science, because we plan and organize ourselves and suddenly, there is no longer a notice that was promised. You don’t have the continuity of those resources to do the research,” asserts the professor.

FAP-DF has been contacted, but until the latest update of this article, it has not commented on the matter. The GDF has informed that it will investigate the matter.