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Brazil Science and Technology Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward, 1968-79
In the so-called "great leap forward" period, the Brazilian
military government, which took power in 1964, embarked on its
ambitious program of scientific and technological self-sufficiency.
In the first years, the military government entered into conflict
with a significant part of the country's scientific leadership,
because of the latter's real or assumed socialist stands. The two
sides later reconciled, however, because of their shared nationalism
and concern with social and economic development. The move toward
scientific self-sufficiency reached its climax during Ernesto Geisel's
presidency (1974-79), which scientist Reinaldo Guimarães
describes as a period of "enlightened despotism." The
main initiatives in this period included the university reform in
1969 that introduced graduate education and organized the universities
into departments and institutes.
In the "great leap forward" period, science and technology
became linked institutionally to the economic authorities. The federal
government created support agencies and programs under a newly created
Planning Ministry or the Secretariat of Planning and Coordination
of the Presidency of the Republic (Secretaria de Planejamento e
Coordenação da Presidência da República--Seplan).
The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (Banco Nacional
de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social--BNDES), Brazil's main
investment bank, created a special fund for science and technology,
which led to a new agency, the Funding Authority for Studies and
Projects (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos--Finep). The Finep
was organized as a private corporation under ministerial supervision
and was responsible for the administration of the National Fund
for Scientific and Technological Development (Fundo Nacional de
Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico--FNDCT),
which has provided institutional grants for technological projects
for research and development in public and private nonprofit institutions.
The FNDCT's annual budget in the mid-1970s was around US$200 million
but was reduced gradually to about US$40 million by the early 1990s.
The 1968-79 period also saw the establishment of two large research
and graduate institutions in science and technology: the Coordinating
Board of Postgraduate Programs in Engineering (Coordenação
dos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia--Coppe)
at both the UFRJ and Unicamp. Both institutions were oriented toward
research and training in advanced engineering (chemical, mechanical,
biomedical, electric, metallurgical, nuclear, and naval) and in
new technologies derived from recent advances in solid-state physics
and lasers. Other institutions also benefited, such as the Technology
Center (Centro de Tecnologia) of the Pontifical Catholic University
of Rio
de Janeiro (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do
Rio de Janeiro--PUC-RJ), the Polytechnical School at the USP, and
the ITA. The PUC is Brazil's only private university that produces
a significant amount of scientific research.
Initiatives in the 1968-79 period also included the cooperation
agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) for
the development of nuclear technology, followed by the development
of the so-called Parallel Program (Programa Paralelo), a secret
program for nuclear weapons development; the beginning of the space
program, with the development of a satellite launch vehicle and
a satellite; the development of a subsonic military jet aircraft
(the AMX project, in association with Italy); the adoption of a
market protection policy for the computer industry; and the writing
of three successive national plans for scientific and technological
development. Another initiative included the creation of research
and development centers within the country's main state-owned corporations,
such as the Brazilian
Petroleum Corporation (Petróleo Brasileiro--Petrobrás),
Brazilian
Telecommunications, Inc. (Telecomunições Brasileiras
S.A.--Telebrás), and the Brazilian
Electric Power Company, Inc. (Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras
S.A.--Eletrobrás). In addition, a national system for agricultural
research was reorganized and strengthened through the Brazilian
Agriculture and Livestock Research Enterprise (Empresa Brasileira
de Pesquisa Agropecuária--Embrapa), under the Ministry of
Agriculture.
On the positive side, these initiatives were characterized by abundant
funding resources, quick-decision mechanisms, and some relative
flexibility in the use of the grants. Even for large projects, resources
were provided whenever possible to the group leader, in a deliberate
bypass of the traditional, cumbersome, and ineffectual procedures
of public administration. On the other hand, the absence of well-defined
peer-review procedures, particularly at Finep, allowed for the support
of less than worthy groups and projects, which became permanent
clients of FNDCT resources.
More serious was the lack of consistency that existed between science
and technology policies, oriented toward self-sufficiency and a
strong presence of the public sector, and the economic policies
of the same period, which opened Brazil to multinational corporations
and the acquisition of ready-made, turnkey technologies from abroad.
The result was that the research seldom benefited the productive
sector, except in three main areas: in agriculture, mostly through
the development of new varieties of sugar cane, corn, soybeans,
coffee, fruits, and other crops; in a few sectors where government
research and development centers--such as the Army Technology Center
(Centro Tecnológico do Exército--CTEx), the CTA, and
those of Eletrobrás, Petrobrás, and Telebrás--linked
with industry and established technical standards for communications
equipment and other products; and in the area of computing, where
the government tried to link research and production by Brazilian
private firms under the umbrella of market protection.
Data as of April 1997
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