Funding for science in Brazil is suffering due to the country’s economy and debt. The projected 2015 budgets of the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Education, which funds graduate students, have been cut 25% from BRL 7.3 billion ($2 billion) and 9% from BRL 48.8 billion, respectively. The cuts are a result of much of the royalties from oil revenues funding education and health rather than the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT), the source of support for most federal research agencies, as before. Thus, the largely FNDCT-funded National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the primary funding agency of the Ministry of Science, has been unable to award payments on current grants and has canceled or not announced some of its programs. The CNPq has received only 27% of its anticipated BRL $1.2 billion from the FNDCT. Pending approval by Brazilian officials, the Ministry of Science has secured a $2.5 billion loan from the Inter-American Development Bank.

Source: Science