Controversias sobre la federalización de la ciencia y la tecnología en Argentina: cuatro ejemplos recientes (2020-2022)

Abstract

The federalization of science and technology (S&T) has gained a place in the policy agenda in Argentina, based on the recognition of different structural problems of the S&T system. These problems translate into two different but related objectives: the de-concentration of resources and public investments, and the de-centralization of the conception, management or governance of these policies. On this basis, different milestones and unprecedented initiatives have been deployed, such as a law on the financing of the system that explicitly states the objective of federalization, a national S&T plan with territorial agendas, special CONICET projects with provinces and new calls for researchers, calls for candidates in other 16 national S&T organizations, and various federal programs and projects. However, any redistribution strategy involves power struggles and conflicts of interest that, although not so visible, have resulted in advances, setbacks and pending accounts on federalization. Based on different quantitative analyses, the article illustrates some of these controversies with four recent examples or cases between 2020 and 2022, which allow us to discuss, on the one hand, the power or impact of these initiatives and, on the other hand, their internal coherence and implementation criteria.