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1/n This thread will be long, but if you´d like to know a bit about what it´s like being a scientist in Brazil (my perspective), read on. To give you more perspective on my take on things, I will share a bit about my history first.
2/n As many of you know, I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, second largest city in Brazil. As an undergraduate, I attended Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, majoring in Microbiology. Later on, I started on the Microbiology MSc program in the same department.
3/n After that, at 22, I pursued my PhD at the University of Iowa (US). During that time, I lived in Iowa City, a small city in the Midwest, for 2 years. My advisor then took a position at the University of Washington (Seattle), where I spent the last 3 years of my PhD.
4/n After finishing my PhD, I moved to Vancouver, Canada, where I was a postdoc at the University of British Columbia for 5 years. After 10 years in North America I decided to come back, and have been a PI in Brazil for the last 6.5 years.
5/n Having experienced a fair bit of (and gotten used to) science in the US/Canada, many things I encountered when I came back were surprising. I knew there were difficulties, but some are still hard to get used to after all these years. I will share a bit about these here.
6/n GRANTS in Brazil are minimal. US grants go over USD 500k. A bit smaller in Canada. In Brazil, average grant of main funding agency probably USD 18k. In our State agency, average is probably USD 25k. Note I used “probably” a lot - little transparency about resource allocation.
7/n EXCHANGE RATE. On top of the fact that grants are already small in BRL, we have to deal with a USD:BRL exchange rate around 3.9. Please remember that lab reagents go by USD for the most part.
8/n LOCAL PRODUCTION. Since innovation and technological development struggle in Brazil for reasons that are beyond this post, we do not have local production of the vast majority of consumables. Therefore, we need to import consumables on an almost 4:1 exchange rate.
9/n PRICES. Companies that import these consumables to Brazil also need to add a profit margin for the local retailers. As a result, consumables in Brazil can easily cost 2-4 times the USD price (on top of the exchange rate!).
10/n DELIVERY. As if that was not enough, importing some reagents takes time. It is not usual for laboratory material to get stuck in customs. Reagents that in the US/Canada would arrive within 2-3 days may take 45-60 days to arrive in a lab in Brazil.
11/n QUALITY. As a result, there is no guarantee that product was stored in appropriate conditions. This results in lab reagents that don´t perform as well. Can say this first-hand. Assays I performed exhaustively in Canada do not work as well here, even using the same reagents.
12/n BUDGET. In recent years, federal science budget suffered outrageous cuts. 2017 budget of the national funding agency <20% of the 2014 budget. Last week, the federal government put a 42% contingency on the Ministry of Science budget for this year (on top of cuts).
13/n BUDGET 2. For the past 3 years, the national funding agency started the year with a budget that would allow it to honor scholarship payments to grad students only until August.
14/n INFRASTRUCTURE. As a consequence of lack of funding, labs suffer with major infrastructure issues. It is not uncommon for labs to be flooded when it rains hard in Rio. Fires are also common in university labs, where electrical maintenance and renovations cannot be afforded.
15/n On top of these science-related issues, there are many other issues that make it particularly difficult for Brazilian scientist to compete in the international environment.
16/n TRAFFIC takes a significant portion of scientists´ (and everybody else´s) time. I spend a daily average of 3 hours driving to and from work (within the same city).
17/n CRIME is also a major issue. Murder rates in Brazil are already high, and growing. As an example, a year ago a councilwoman whose work was devoted to minorities was brutally murdered, and there are serious indications that politicians were involved.
18/n INSTITUTIONAL VIOLENCE. To curb violence, government uses the army to patrol streets, with no significant reduction in violence. Last week an army patrol shot a car with a family inside 80 TIMES because they “thought” it was a car that had been stolen in the area.
19/n PREPAREDNESS. This week we had a major rain storm that killed 10 people so far. Although you can´t always predict nature, this is the rainy season and the municipal government did little to avoid the consequences.
20/20 I could go on and on, but you get the idea. When you see someone doing good science in Brazil, CHEER THEM ON! BE SUPPORTIVE! We have outstanding scientists and incredible science here, despite all hurdles. I am sure you will get great things back by interacting with us.
