GoKawiilBiologist Guilherme Longo, who studies the effect of climate change on coral bleaching, is one of the recipients of funding from Brazilian science philanthropy Serrapilheira.Credit: Erika Beux
Wealthy philanthropies in Brazil are starting to put their money into science — a trend that could help to protect research funding if voters in next month’s elections choose a president who doesn’t prioritize the sciences.
Brazil does not have a strong history of charitable support for research. But the past decade has seen the founding of the nation’s first non-profit organization dedicated to funding scientific research: the Serrapilheira Institute. The organization has now distributed more than US$25 million to early-career researchers, and other philanthropic science funders have sprung up in its wake. Moreover, in 2023, Brazil’s leading university, the University of São Paulo, launched a research centre to study and foster science philanthropy.
This movement is building against a backdrop of turbulent times for Brazilian science. Former president Jair Bolsonaro slashed science funding during his tenure from 2019–23. Polls ahead of Brazil’s presidential election on 4 October show that Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio Bolsonaro, is running neck and neck with Brazil’s current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
This growth chamber, which biologist Paulo Teixeira uses to study plant immunity, was connected to the power grid with money provided by private funder Serrapilheira.Credit: Paulo Teixeira/ESALQ, University of São Paulo
In the United States, “philanthropy has been able to provide a little bit of bridge support” to science, says Kate Lowry, strategy director at the Science Philanthropy Alliance, a New York City-based coalition of heavyweight funders that includes the Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, and Wellcome in London. “The same could be true in Brazil.”
Scientists in Brazil who have received philanthropic funding say that it provides a welcome degree of flexibility. For example, biologist Paulo Teixeira, at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture in Piracicaba, received public funding to build a growth chamber to study the immune system of plants, but his initial proposal didn’t explicitly include the cost of connecting the new building to the electrical grid. So, he used funding from the Serrapilheira Institute to buy a utility pole and make that connection, salvaging his project. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without that money,” he says.
Overcoming hurdles
Historically, scientists at leading public universities in Brazil have been critical of researchers who accept private donations, arguing that science should be fully funded by the government. Big donors, for their part, don’t usually have science on their radar, says philanthropist José Luiz Egydio Setúbal, the head of a foundation focused on child and adolescent health. “In a country with so much inequality and with a wide range of social problems, people don’t see science as a priority,” he says.
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