The New Science Law Initiative is Exclusive and Discriminatory: ACMor

The new Science Act initiative sent to the Chamber of Deputies by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is exclusive and discriminatory, eliminating the participation of the scientific community in decision-making; It reduces resource control mechanisms in the allocation of scholarships and disappears references to the goal of allocating 1 percent of GDP to scientific research and technological development.

These are some of the first red flags on the regulatory proposal that the Academy of Sciences of Morelos (ACMor) discovered and referred to publicly, when issuing the first analysis of the document that the head of the federal executive sent to the Chamber of Deputies recently. Wed and that it has been referred to committees for analysis; Which would lead to its discussion in next year’s plenary session.

“The proposal, if approved, could jeopardize the present and future of the scientific and technological development of the country,” notes the statement issued on the social networks of the Academy, ACMor_Morelos, in the afternoon and evening of Thursday, May 15.

ACMor made it clear that other sections of the initiative still need in-depth analysis, but the exclusion of researchers, universities and business representatives on the governing bodies of the Council who propose its creation to replace Consit is very clear, as well as the fact that discrimination prevails for researchers from private universities to conduct research.

In the coming days, more documents are expected to analyze the presidential proposal from professional societies of scientists such as Red ProCienciaMX and SIINTRACATERAS.

Despite the fact that Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies and Senate forced themselves to approve a new public law on science, technology and innovation before the end of 2020, lawmakers from majority groups in the previous legislature, which concluded its functions in 2021 and the current one, which has been serving for two years. A year now, they have evaded their responsibility and have been waiting for the bill they expected to be put together by the executive branch. Legislators created and set themselves the task of creating and approving the new Science Act when they approved an amendment to Article 3 of the Constitution, in May 2019; Three years and seven months.