13/11/2017

IMPA faces the challenge of doing more with even fewer resources.

Reproduction from the newspaper O Globo

When Marcelo Viana took over as director of the National Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) at the end of 2015, he already knew he had a tough job ahead of him. At the time, he faced the prospect of seeing the institution's 2016 budget reduced by about 30% compared to the previous year, while at the same time having to prepare it to host the two largest events in world mathematics: the International Mathematical Olympiad, held in July of this year, and the International Congress of Mathematicians, scheduled to open in August 2018 in Rio.

Faced with this situation, in an interview with GLOBO in January 2016, Viana acknowledged that he would have to be "imaginative." Little did he know that the situation would worsen, demanding even more of his creativity: not only was the budget cut for that year confirmed, but IMPA's budget for 2017 was further reduced, and even then it was not fully met: only R$ 55 million of the R$ 80 million planned were released this year. Now, in a new interview with the newspaper, he paints a much tighter picture for next year, with cuts in the budget of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC). The forecast is for only R$ 39 million to cover IMPA's expenses in 2018, less than half of the original allocation for this year.

Reputation for excellence in risk management

According to Viana, this new and radical cut in funding for IMPA puts the international congress scheduled for next year "at risk" if the institution cannot secure some kind of supplementary funding, either from the government or the private sector, through sponsorships. If this happens, it will have a strong impact on Brazil's ambition to become part of the "world elite" of mathematics and even on the country's international image, he believes.

The success of IMPA will also be tarnished, which in just 65 years of existence, completed last month, has built a reputation for excellence that puts it side by side with centuries-old institutions such as the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the United Kingdom, and Chicago and Princeton in the USA.

"We can't throw away more than 60 years of work," Viana laments. "We didn't get to host the congress, which will be held for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, overnight. It took decades to put Brazil at the forefront of world mathematics, a position that these cuts put at risk. So, we're going to have to find a way to get around this situation."

Another major concern for Viana is the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP), which since 2005 has contributed to disseminating and improving knowledge of the subject in the country, as well as helping to reveal talent in the field. This year, the competition promoted by IMPA included the participation of private schools for the first time, totaling 18 million students from 53,000 public and private institutions.

According to Viana, the event requires investments of around R$ 53 million, funded in equal parts by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC) and the Ministry of Education (MEC), which he doesn't know if it will have for its realization next year [the MEC's share is guaranteed in the budget bill].

"It may seem like a lot, but it's less than R$3 per student," calculates the director of IMPA. "If, out of the R$39 million we expect to have next year, we have to take R$26.5 million for the Olympics, there won't be enough left to pay salaries or the electricity bill."

But IMPA's reputation for excellence may be precisely the way out, at least for the institution, amidst the serious crisis affecting science in the country. With a management model known as a "social organization," the institute has more flexibility to seek financial support from the private sector and control its expenses, so much so that it already has some cases of "patronage," in which companies and even individuals help to fund the hiring of some researchers.

“We had to reduce costs and adjust our expectations to this new budgetary reality,” says Viana. “But we also sought alternative sources to carry out these projects, especially those surrounding the ‘Mathematics Biennium,’ declared by the National Congress for 2017 and 2018 in a law that gives us an institutional ‘umbrella,’ particularly for the two major events of the period: the International Mathematical Olympiad, which we have already organized, and its high point, which will be the International Congress of Mathematicians next year. We are fighting for other support beyond the public sphere, attracting sponsors.”

Reporting by Cesar Baima