Scientific financial funding in Colombia from 2000 to 2012

Univ. Sci. 2013, Vol. 18 (3): 311-320 doi: 10.11144/Javeriana.SC18-3.sffc Freely available on line original article Scientific financial funding in Colombia from 2000 to 2012 Jorge Mario Rodríguez-Fernández Abstract This study evaluates trends in funding for Science, Technology and Innovation, Research and Development and COLCIENCIAS (Administrative Department for Science, Technology and Innovation) between 2000-2006 and 2007-2012. Available data from the World Bank, OCYT (Colombian observatory of science and technology), DANE (National statistics department), Banco de la República and COLCIENCIAS to evaluate funding source by sector (private, public and international), financial growth rate, financial expenditure, and activity related expenses from 2000 to 2012, and regression models to estimate financial trends. COLCIENCIAS funding increased in the past years; Science, Technology and Innovation, and Research and Development funding increased from $1,296.7 million US dollars in 2000-2006 to $2,766.4 million US dollars in 2007-2012. The financial analysis showed a significant increase in public funding mainly by government (p<0.05); however, government and corporation expenditure did not vary from 2000 to 2012. Keywords: Scientific research and technological development; Research financing; Health sciences; Technology and innovation management; Colombia. Introduction Edited by Alberto Acosta Assistant Research Scientist - Anxiety Disorders Clinic NYSPI Columbia University Medical Center, NY, USA Received: 03-09-2013 Accepted: 28-10-2013 Published on line: 12-11-2013 Citation: Rodríguez-Fernández JM (2013) Scientific financial funding in Colombia from 2000 to 2012. Universitas Scientiarum 18(3): 311-320 doi: 10.11144/Javeriana.SC18-3. sffc Funding: N/A Electronic supplementary material: N/A SICI: 2027-1352(201309/12)18:3<311:SFFICF2T2 >2.0.TS;2-6 Funding for scientific and technology has provided secondary benefits to health and socioeconomic development, as well as to culture and education (North & Bárcena 1993, Sachs 2001, Frank & Nason 2009). Research funding comes from both public and private sources. Private funds are usually directed towards commercial purposes and public funds to social interests; however, the goals and benefits of both are not mutually exclusive (Maceira et al. 2010). Scientific research in Colombia dates back to colonial times. In 1783, a 30-year project describing the natural diversity of Santa Fe (currently, Bogotá D.C) and its environs was conducted under José Celestino Mutis; leading to the collection and classification of thousands of animals and Universitas Scientiarum, Journal of the Faculty of Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, is licensed under the Creative Commons 2.5 of Colombia: Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivative Works. 312 vegetables species. Then, in the mid XIX (19th) century, Agustín Codazzi and Manuel Ponce de León conducted a cartographic description of the existing territory (Obregón 1991). Scientific projects prior to the 20th century were conducted without major external involvement or funding. This began to change following the formation of several non-governmental institutions and universities in the 20th century. In 1968, the “Francisco José de Caldas” Scientific Research and Special Projects Fund was created under COLCIENCIAS (Ospina Bozzi 1998). Presently, COLCIENCIAS is the entity responsible for the development of science and technology in Colombia and is the largest funding source in the country. To create a better interaction between COLCIENCIAS and government, the National Science Technology and Innovation Council (CSTIS) was founded. Legislation in the past two decades has made COLCIENCIAS and CSTIS the main policy regulators of the Colombian Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) system. Because of their positive impacts on industry, education and culture, STI and Research and Development (RD) systems have receive increased attention in recent times (Sachs 2001, Frank & Nason 2009). Despite this, few studies have focused on the fluctuations in funding of STI and RD in Colombia in the last twelve years; some studies have described this pattern by area of interest (Moses III et al. 2005, Dorsey et al. 2010, Garro et al. 2010, Maceira et al. 2010, Yagui et al. 2010, Martínez-Martínez et al. 2012). The present work will assess: (1) STI and RD patterns by the private, public and international sectors, (2) trends in STI funding, activities, and expenditure in Colombia (3) trends in funding by COLCIENCIAS. Materials and Methods Sources of data: Reports from 2000 to 2012 were taken from 2000 to 2012 from public and nonprofit institutions such as the OCyT (Colombian observatory of science and technology), DANE (National statistics department), and the Banco de la República and COLCIENCIAS and profit organizations like the World Bank Group. Universitas Scientiarum Vol. 18 (3): 311-320 Scientific financial funding Colombian scientific funding was divided into an early (2000 to 2006) period and a late period (2007 to 2012), as in Dorsey et al. (2010) given that the main goal of this study is to describe and characterize the differences between these two periods. STI and RD funding was categorized as public, private, and international. To further classify STI, data and grouped the data following OCyT 2012 categories (Salazar et al. 2010, Lucio et al. 2012) by (1) Corporations, (2) Government, (3) Education institutions, (4) International, (5) Research centers, (6) Medical centers, (7) Private non-profit and (8) Professional associations and NGOs (Salazar et al. 2010, Lucio et al. 2012); information on these categories for RD are not available. STI expenditure (excluding international) was also analyzed; activity related expenditure was categorized as (1) Research and development, (2) Innovation, (3) Administrative related activities, (4) Support for scientific training, (5) Scientific and technological services (Lucio et al. 2012). Values reported Colombian pesos were converted to US dollars (annual exchange average). As suggested by Bénassy-Quéré & Roussellet (2012) and Martínez-Martínez et al. (2012), we used a PPP conversion factor (GDP, Gross domestic product) to market exchange rate ratio (The World Bank Group 2013a) for comparative purposes. Currently, there is no data or source related to Biomedical Research and Development Product Index -BRDPI- (Moses III et al. 2005, Dorsey et al. 2010). Statistical methods: Data was analyzed on a MATLAB 7.13 platform (MathWorks, Natick, MA). Financial trends were analyzed using a polynomial regression model. A two-tailed t-test with significance of 5% was applied to compare the periods of 2000-2006 and 2007-2012. Results Colombian GDP (adjusted for purchasing power parity exchange rate ratio) almost doubled between the early and late periods. STI funding ranged from 0.27% to 0.47% of the GDP while www.javeriana.edu.co/scientiarum/web 313 Rodríg (...truncated)