Mexico’s new science and technology law – Enseñame de Ciencia – has been published

It is indeed a fact, CONACYT or the National Council for Science and Technology has been dismantled, as expected, in the face of such a radical decision by the Mexican government, this fact will have several repercussions, beginning of course, with controversial reactions. Mexican researchers.

According to the Proceso portal, the aim of the science and technology bill that was sent to the legislature by the López Obrador government, was to radically end the current Conacyt and the public research centers attached to this council, as well as make way for a science policy model based more on assumptions than on processes Subject matter appropriate to scientific disciplines.

The same portal added that the General Law of Humanities, Sciences, Technologies and Innovation, overnight, will conclude a long history of the scientific community in Mexico whose goal was to create its own legal and institutional framework, conducive to the development of scientific and technological institutions and societies that recognize their specificities and nature, and which are essential to the creation of knowledge and training. Specialized, disseminated and applied, the goals of which will change with the new legislative change.

WHAT WAS CONACYT?

According to the portal data CONACYTThe National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt) is a Mexican state institution responsible for setting public policies in the humanities, science, technology and innovation throughout the country with the aim of promoting the scientific sovereignty and technological independence of Mexico and in accordance with the principles of humanism, equity, social welfare, environmental care and preservation of a vital cultural heritage.

The reaction of the scientific community

As expected, the scientific community has shown resounding disapproval of the law approved in a week in Congress that makes Consit National Council for the Humanities, Sciences, and Technologies or Conahcytfor its new acronym.

For those who are aware of this amendment, they know that it is not for nothing that the word “humanitarian” and semantic words are repeated up to 93 times in the new law. Although this change has aesthetic overtones, it is in fact the most visible modification of the series of frameworks for how budget decisions are made in science projects that receive government support.

In a simplistic way, the law specifies that the flag in Mexico must be accessible to all, which means that it must have a social utility and its primary focus must be to help solve the country’s most pressing problems.

Institutions change, laws change

According to the information portal xatakaon the basis of a law published on May 8, in the Official Journal of the Federation, the provisions of which became effective on the same day, thus, the old Science and Technology Law approved in 2002, which “allowed the formulation and legitimization of neoliberal policies” and ” Encourage the abandonment of basic sciences,” according to the summary of the new law released by Still Conacyt directed by María Elena Alvarez-Buella.

A new government council will decide science in Mexico

The new government council that will decide Mexico’s scientific and technological innovation policy will be made up of Conahcyt, including Semarnat, foreign relations, health, welfare, energy, and finance, as well as state secretaries. The National Defense and Navy also get a seat and voting power on the board.

After the formation of the new council, prof Conahcyt It will have one year to issue administrative rules and regulations to comply with the law, and that is the same amount of time that the country’s states will have to make amendments to their laws to align them in relation to the new science and technology law.