Researchers and directors of universities and research centers gathered on the platform “For Science” This Wednesday, they sent to the parties of the Assembly of the Republic and the President of the Republic a compilation of “190 articles published since August against the Government’s decree-law that determines the extinction of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the integration of its powers into the National Research Agency (ANI)”.
The articles are compiled in site of the platform and include opinion articles, public positions and news published since the announcement of the reform, in July this year, which involves the creation of a single financing agency calledAgency for Research and Innovation (AI2). What they have in common is the fact that they give voice to “doubts and questions from scientists and experts” that “remain unanswered” and “warn about the risks arising from the merger, taking into account the methodology of its approval as well as its content.
“The analysis of the articles reveals, for scientists, that the FCT/ANI merger was not received as a mere administrative reorganization, but as a structural rupture with the science model developed in Portugal in recent decades, based on a biased vision of what science is”, summarize the creators of the Pela Ciência platform.
O decree-law which finalizes the process of creating AI², and which will have the status of a public business entity, was approved by the Council of Ministers on November 28th, and is now dependent on the promulgation of the President of the Republic.