TY - JOUR

T1 - Introduction to celebrating Latin American talent in chemistry

AU - Merino, Gabriel

AU - Fernández-Herrera, María A.

AU - Soler-Illia, Galo J.A.A.

AU - Zarbin, Aldo J.G.

AU - Zuin, Vânia G.

AU - Chamorro, Eduardo

AU - de Oliveira, Luciana G.

AU - Mesko, Márcia Foster

AU - Fraga, Cesar

AU - Ibarra Alvarado, Ilich A.

AU - Dupont, Jairton

AU - Nogueira, Ana Flávia

AU - Graeff, Carlos F.O.

AU - Pastore, Heloise Oliveira

AU - da Silva Júnior, Eufrânio N.

AU - Azzaroni, Omar

N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful for all the support provided by the RSC, in particular to Geraldine Hay. Funding Information: One Latin American science success in history, in terms of investment and thus knowledge generation, is Brazil. Part of this success is due to the creation in 1951 of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and the National Research Council (now CNPq) governmental bodies in charge of formulating and executing science policy, assessment, and education. Although part of the research in chemistry is carried out in the National Research Institutes, approximately 90% of chemistry in Brazil is associated with the 74 postgraduate programs, primarily in public universities. Chemistry in Brazil experienced signicant growth at the beginning of the 21st century due to a continuous increase in the budget dedicated to science since 2004. This budget rose in 2015, 350% more than in 2004. The investment growth was accompanied by an increase in the number of PhD graduates (from 8000 per year to approximately 19 000 per year in the period 2004–2015) and in the number of scientic publications, in which Brazil is currently the 13th country in the ranking of scientic publications,14 being responsible for approximately 2% of all scientic papers published in the world in 2020. However, the increasing trend in the budget for Science and Technology reversed aer 2015 and experienced a steady decline year aer year, reaching in 2021 the lowest budget in the entire history of the sector (only one-third of the total invested ten years ago).

PY - 2021/12/17

Y1 - 2021/12/17

N2 - A year ago, amid the pandemic, we proposed that the RSC should compile a collection of Latin American contributions to chemistry. The central aim of this collection is to showcase the quality of the research work being carried out in this area. The project was quite well received, and several journals joined. This is not a unique project in this sense; there have been other recent collections with the purpose of highlighting the chemistry developed in Latin America.1–5 However, the current situation of chemistry in each region deserves an analysis of its respective historical context. So, we have taken advantage of this space first to provide a very general historical overview of chemistry in Latin America and then to analyze certain numbers that offer us a picture of where we stand as a consequence of our history. We apologize for focusing on only three countries in a region that includes 46 countries (Latin America and the Caribbean), but we are sure that the stories and problems are similar.

AB - A year ago, amid the pandemic, we proposed that the RSC should compile a collection of Latin American contributions to chemistry. The central aim of this collection is to showcase the quality of the research work being carried out in this area. The project was quite well received, and several journals joined. This is not a unique project in this sense; there have been other recent collections with the purpose of highlighting the chemistry developed in Latin America.1–5 However, the current situation of chemistry in each region deserves an analysis of its respective historical context. So, we have taken advantage of this space first to provide a very general historical overview of chemistry in Latin America and then to analyze certain numbers that offer us a picture of where we stand as a consequence of our history. We apologize for focusing on only three countries in a region that includes 46 countries (Latin America and the Caribbean), but we are sure that the stories and problems are similar.

KW - Chemistry

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121871273&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/911f3c7f-69e6-3ec1-93a5-d104bcb9da1e/

U2 - 10.1039/d1ra90175c

DO - 10.1039/d1ra90175c

M3 - Other (editorial matter etc.)

C2 - 35494152

AN - SCOPUS:85121871273

VL - 11

SP - 40216

EP - 40219

JO - RSC Advances

JF - RSC Advances

SN - 2046-2069

IS - 63

ER -