Biophysical Society Bulletin | October 2019

Public Affairs

Despite the visa announcement, scientists are still concerned that Brexit will make it hard for UK scientists to collabo- rate with EU researchers and that it will cut them off from EU funding. Brexit may also block the growth of research and development funding. To deal with the issue, the prime minister announced the UK government will provide funding for researchers who applied for EU funding before Brexit “to ensure no-one is disadvantaged,” according to the statement from his office. The plans for visas and funding are being put in place as the UK government tries to broker a deal to leave the EU smooth- ly. If no deal is reached, the UK is slated to leave the EU on October 31. Brazil’s Funding Crisis A major budget crisis at Brazil’s leading science funding agency could disrupt the lives of thousands of students and early career scientists. In September, the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in Brasília could run out of money to fund the grants and scholarships it provides to more than 80,000 Brazilians.

On August 15, the agency took to Twitter to announce the suspension of financial support for its recipients—a measure that many had feared since the government decided to slash CNPq’s scholarship budget by 21 percent, from 998 million reais ($249 million) in 2018 to 785 million reais ($196 million) this year. So far, however, CNPq has not clarified how many people will be affected, or how long the suspension of pay- ments would last. The budget issues at CNPq are only the lat- est in a long series of cuts to Brazil’s federal science budget. CNPq’s administration had warned this year’s budget would not be enough. To make it through 2019, the agency request- ed an additional 330 million reais, which Congress approved in June. But the Ministry of Economy hasn’t authorized the allocation of those funds as of yet and does not have a dead- line for doing so. The troubles have alarmed Brazil’s scientific community. CNPq’s crisis could have a wider effect on the scientific community as well. Regardless of whether or not a scientist’s salary is coming from CNPq, the students and postdocs who work with them will be without funding.

BPS Announces Inagural Ambassadors At BPS, we’ve made it our strategic goal to foster a global community and share knowledge in and about biophysics. The Ambassador Program supports these goals directly by creating a global network of BPS mem- bers that will serve as local Society resources in their specific countries or regions to promote the field and foster conversations around biophysics. Ambassadors will play a key role in providing the Society with relevant local content to share with members and will serve as the go-to contact in their country and region. Through this program, the Society hopes to grow the global biophysics network by educating and inspiring others to pursue careers in biophysics and further develop its advocacy efforts around the world.

Ambassador Program

Our very first team of BPS Ambassadors are: John Baenziger , Canada, University of Ottawa Olwyn Byron , United Kingdom, University of Glasgow Nuno Santos , Portugal, Universidade de Lisboa Samrat Mukhopadhyay , India, Indian Institute of Science Education The program received several excellent and qualified applications and we want to thank everyone who applied. Please look for more information on each of our Ambassadors in the coming newsletter.

October 2019

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