Argentina’s researchers face continued catastrophe under Javier Milei
By 
Rebecca Trager2024-10-21T08:30:00
The president of Argentina, who has been in office less than a year, has continued cuts to higher education and science budgets
The situation facing chemists and other researchers in Argentina is continuing to worsen under the country’s hard right President Javier Milei, who assumed the country’s helm in December. The sharp cuts to higher education, science budgets and professors’ salaries persist, despite an estimated 1000 academics taking to the streets on 2 October to protest.
After less than six months in office, Milei had already demoted the country’s science ministry and frozen funding for the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Conicet), which funds the work of about 12,000 scientists at 300 research institutions. He had also frozen budgets at the country’s public universities that conduct most of the research carried out in the country, at their 2023 levels. And now, less than a year after becoming president, he has drastically reduced funding at public universities, crippling the salaries of professors and staff there.