There is a system in our country Science and Technology (SyT) consists of national universities grouped in National Interuniversity Council (CIN) and 17 organizations of the National Public Administration (APN) that are subject to different jurisdictions and constitute Interinstitutional Council for CyT (See box). In these places, knowledge is produced on topics as diverse as meteorology, geological and water resources, atomic energy, space activities, and schools of fish species in our Argentine Sea. Among 17 organizations Conisit It is the largest in size, geographically widespread, and diverse in the topics that are studied.
It also plays a major role in the system National Agency for the Promotion of Technological Research, Development and InnovationIt is responsible for directing funds allocated to finance research projects and enhancing coordination with companies.
Currently, after several months of slowdown, the agency is practically paralyzed: Its entire board resigned Given the lack of concrete responses on the direction of science and technology policy from its new director, Alicia Caballero. also The race directors resigned Responsible for managing major funding programmes, Line And Fonsett.
This unprecedented situation in the agency's history greatly affects the work of investigative teams across the country.
Adjustments in the structural organization of the state are not trivial. The government demoted The Ministry of Science and Technology At the level of Undersecretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, responsible for Nicola Bossiwhich remains financially and administratively under the scope of the Secretariat of that jurisdiction.
Conicet was also directly affiliated with JGM. To get an idea of the place that the science and technology function occupies in the state's organizational chart, suffice it to say that the JGM has two secretariats responsible for implementing state reform (Transformation of the state and public functionwithout responsible authority, and Simplify the stateresponsible for Josefina Sanz) while, to handle the entire S&T function, he was left only Undersecretary of the Ministry of Science and Technologyresponsible for Paula Naherniak. The loss of the administrative hierarchy dismantles existing programs for coordinating and strengthening the science and technology system and isolates the seventeen organizations that comprise it.
Omnibus Law XS: Foundations of Deconstruction
In the new project for The Basic LawOn Thursday the 25th, it received a majority opinion in the committee that will discuss on Monday the 29th in the Council, the introduction of strike amendments to the law regulating employment in the public sector (25,164/99) which warns against trying – Dismantling the basic functions of the state, including CyT function. Chapter IV of the project provides for the possibility of permanent staff remaining in the APN “Immediately available, available now”Either because the agency or agency in which the agent works is closed or – here is the novelty – because a surplus of resources is identified through a report issued by the competent authority (currently in the orbit of JGM).
If the Basic Law as written is approved by a majority, the executive will have the power to do so Unbundling the resources of any science and technology organization Without the need to interfere or close it, even those expressly excluded by Chapters 3 and 6 of Chapter One of the draft law in question. Strictly speaking, all permanent employees of APN who fall under the General Framework Act are subject to Become available immediately If this legal amendment is approved, it would violate the original spirit of the current law, which protects public administration income through competition.
Science and technology, out!
During the 2023 election campaign, incumbent Pres Javier Miley He has publicly declared, on repeated occasions, that the function of science and technology should not be in the hands of the state. We all saw how he dismantled the organizational chart while screaming “Get out!” With the removal of small banners bearing the names of various ministries and organizations.
When asked specifically about Conicet, he mentioned that It had to be closed Or, at most, transform it into a smaller, more hierarchical agency that would deal exclusively with investigative cases with economic impact.
Conicet receives special attention not only for ideological and political reasons, such as those also manifested in the administration Mauricio MacriBut because it is the only place in the APN where it is done periodically Contests are opened with ratings Of rigor and great demand which produces income for the state's permanent factory.
This line of analysis has a series of implications that should be highlighted significantly. First, the differences within the scientific field raised by different sectors and the search for confrontation between hard/soft sciences and applied/basic sciences are completely irrelevant in this context. secondly, Layoffsthe Instability Of working conditions and evacuation From various fields within Intimidation, Police presence Increasing and discipline It's politics He wears And StrippingAll very serious phenomena, should not hide the main goal of the Miley government in this matter.
Everything indicates that the government will dismantle the function of science and technology as we know it and seek congressional approval to do so.
