In Mexico, budget cuts dim hopes for a science funding revival
In Mexico, budget cuts dim hopes for a science funding revival
Source; Science Magazine
Last year, many scientists in Mexico celebrated when Claudia Sheinbaum, the nation’s newly elected president, announced she would elevate the government’s main science funding agency to a potentially more powerful secretariat, which sits higher on the bureaucratic ladder. One hope: that the upgrade would help reverse a steady decline in government funding for research that occurred under the austerity policies of Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
But 5 months into Sheinbaum’s 6-year term, hopes of a financial rebound are dwindling. Late last year, her administration finalized a 2025 spending plan that calls for cutting the budget of the new Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation by 2%, to about $1.3 billion. Overall funding for Mexico’s 24 government-funded research centers drops by 11%. The cuts are forcing some centers to reduce researcher salaries or lay off workers. Others say they don’t currently have enough funding to operate for the full year.
“Some colleagues believed that once the López Obrador presidency was over, things would go back to what they used to be,” says Alma Maldonado, an education policy researcher at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute and member of Red Prociencia MX, a science advocacy organization. “Unfortunately, what we are seeing is continuity, at least in terms of funding.”
Cont'd.
LINK:
https://www.science.org/content/article/mexico-budget-cuts-dim-hopes-science-funding-revival