The Sociedad de Neurociencias del Uruguay (SNU) views with great concern the situation of our colleagues from the Argentinian neuroscientific community, facing the implementation by the government of measures that threaten to destroy the rich scientific heritage accumulated over decades.
In the modern history of our Latin American continent, Argentina has always been an example to follow, contributing to science with outstanding pioneering researchers, among whom are three Nobel Prize winners (1947, 1970, and 1984), with the creation and maintenance of one of the best systems of support and development of science in the world, the CONICET (1958), and the formation and consolidation of the plethora of first-rate researchers with a high international impact that exist today throughout the country. Among all the areas represented in Argentine science, neuroscience holds a prominent place, characterized not only by the excellence of its research groups but also by a continuous spirit of collaboration and regional and international integration.
Today, measures such as the freezing (in Argentine pesos) of the CONICET budget and all public universities to the amounts of 2023, the suspension or delays in the allocation of funds for ongoing research projects, the dismissal of numerous administrative officials of the CONICET, and the failure to grant already approved scholarships to graduate students, represent a direct attack on all this history and any possibility of future development of Argentina. The formation of a high-level research system like the current one is neither fortuitous nor quick; its consolidation required decades of effort, both in economic investment and human resources. Stopping this thriving system will have severe consequences on the Argentine scientific system, causing an irreversible delay in its development and, consequently, in the development of the country.
In this context, we express our solidarity and emphatic support to the entire Argentine neuroscience community, represented by our sister society, the Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias (SAN).
Comisión Directiva
Sociedad de Neurociencias del Uruguay