Science safe in Brazil elections

Like many other Brazilians, the nation's scientists are hoping that the presidential elections of 3 October will bring as little change as possible. After nearly a decade of solid support for science from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his likely successor, Dilma Rousseff, has much to live up to.

Lula's own formal education may have been meagre, but during his seven years as president he has raised the status of science in Brazil by steadily increasing research funding (see chart) as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) — which itself has grown impressively (see www.nature.com/news/2010/100609/full/465674a.html Nature 465, 674–675; 2010). He has also elevated Brazil's scientific profile by writing numerous editorials on its science-development initiatives, including one in Scientific American in 2008, and his science minister of five years, Sérgio Rezende, has published research about spin-wave theory in Physical Review Letters while in office.

"The Lula government brought a very important increase in funding and did very important work in terms of policy-making and agenda setting," says Paulo Gadelha, president of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) biomedical research institute in Rio de Janeiro. "It was the first time that we brought together the traditional areas related to industrial policy with those related to science funding, health and agriculture."

Para ver na integra. NATURE.