2023-06-11 22:11:00
Published through social networks, the pronouncement indicates that the Law excludes the representation of academics in a Board of Directors
MEXICO CITY.- The academicsamong whom are the emeritus Federico Bermúdez Rattoni, J. Adolfo García Sainz, Victoria Chagoya de Sánchez and Antonio Peña Díaz, express their deep concern about the direction that science could take in Mexico by “imposing a law that limits the freedom to do research and hinders scientific progress.
Published through social networks, the pronouncement indicates that the Law excludes the representativeness of the academics in a Board of Directors, prioritizing the participation of the representatives of the State Secretariats, including National Defense and the Navy; but it will also grant funding and scholarships in accordance with a National Research Agenda that addresses the country’s priority or urgent problems defined by the government, consequently limiting funding to many important research areas.
“The College of Academic Staff of the IFC-ONE disagrees with the new science lawand calls on the community and the population in general to express themselves against it”, say the academics which point out that in the years 2020 and 2021 CONACyT did not provide resources for Frontier Science calls and there have been no Calls aimed exclusively at Basic Science.
“It is important to highlight that the number of projects supported in the 2022-2023 call is extremely low and does not compensate for the lack of calls from previous years. In addition, the resources originally raised suffered a reduction in the amounts. In view of this, we demand the publication of extraordinary calls to alleviate this situation”, point out the 73 signatories, including Tamara Rosenbaum, Luis B. Tovar y Romo, Violeta Gisselle López Huerta, Marcela Palomero Rivero, Miguel Pérez de la Mora, Ana María López Colomé and Maria de Lourdes Massieu Trigo.
The pronouncement also points out that with the new law the public investment target of 1% of GDP for research is eliminated, leaving the allocation of the “increase to that of the previous year” to the decision of the executive branch; but it also allows the absence of supervision and/or accountability since the Internal Consultative body will be controlled by the Council.
In addition, it requires the mandatory assignment of intellectual property and patents to the Council, without justifying the mechanisms for commercializing this property, leaving inventors and their institutions without rights; and leaves open the possibility of designing a new regulation for the National System of Researchers, with the criteria of merit and academic quality defined by the Council apart from their own academicsand ignoring the achievements and merits of the current system.
They also say that it puts the training of new researchers at risk, since it is not only possible that the criteria for granting scholarships to postgraduate students are redefined, but also to support postgraduate programs of international quality; and discriminates against colleagues and students from private higher education institutions, violating constitutional precepts.
“In a community that is based on the preservation of critical thinking and academic decision-making, through discussion in collegiate bodies, we are saddened to see that the recently approved law did not receive an adequate debate on the part of the academic communities In addition, we are concerned that it has not been subjected to an exhaustive analysis in the seven open parliamentary forums originally proposed in the Chamber of Deputies, which would have allowed participation and the exchange of collegiate opinions,” the statement said.
In the document also signed by Román Rossi Pool, Marcia Hiriart Urdanivia, Arturo Hernández Cruz, Diana Escalante Alcalde, Susana Castro Obregón, J. Iván Velasco Velázquez, Rosa Estela Navarro González, Marina Macías Silva and Luis Alfonso Vaca Domínguez, among others, the academics They regret the “reprehensible position” adopted by the members of the Senate, who chose to close the doors and vote without paying attention to the concerns, opinions and claims of the affected students, professors and researchers.
“Their vote was carried out without carefully examining the bill, thus betraying the trust of those who elected them,” the academics among which are also Fernando López Casillas, Rolando E. Hernández Muñoz, Jaime Mas Oliva, Yazmin Ramiro Cortés, José Bargas Diaz, Ruy Enrique Pérez Montfort, Carlos Leonardo Peraza Reyes and Bertha González Pedrajo.
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