Between 2012 and 2022, close to $6.63 trillion of royalties were allocated to projects of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI)as reported by National Planning Department (DNP)What is striking is that many of the projects on which these investments have been spent are not very strategic and take a large amount of money.
The investment dates back to 2012, after the creation of the General Royalty System (SGR) in 2011, which modified the distribution of resources that oil companies pay to the State for exploiting deposits of a non-renewable natural resource.
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Thus, between 2012 and 2018, $2.92 trillion to STI projects, while between 2019 and 2022 they were allocated $3.71 billion for projects in this sector. That increase in the last three years is due to “the implementation of open and competitive public calls (Law 1923 of 2018)”.
Regarding specific projects, during the 2021-2022 biennium, in the Collegiate Body of Administration and Decision (Ocad)which is in charge of evaluating and approving the projects that will be financed, 402 projects were approved, with average values of $3,452 million, according to the DNP.
But, one of the problems that experts mention is that “a lot of money goes into non-strategic initiativess”.
(Execution of projects with royalties in the last two years is at 45.5%).
From the DNP they mention that the clearest examples of low impact projects “are the amounts that range between $1,000 and $5,000 million invested in projects that have been interpreted as science and innovation”, but in reality they are “school visits to zoos”.
The DNP adds that to address these uses with little impact in terms of science and innovation, they have two bets.
The first, to carry out calls with a greater scope, organized by missions and programs that are aligned with the National Development Plan. After implementing this strategy, “They hope to give rise to projects with a greater allocation of resources, close to $50,000 million that promote cooperation, bring together actors with common interests and that lead to a solid commitment in the science, technology and innovation sector.”.
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The second point that the DNP hopes to implement is in “promote regional projects that respond to the needs of each territory and that integrate all the initiatives and activities proposed by the Departmental Councils”.
Besides, Arturo Luna, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovationaffirms that the best way to improve the investment of resources is through the development of calls and support of investment projects.
But this should be done.”in three dimensions. The first, departmental, which is aimed at closing gaps between territories and strengthening their local capacities in Science, Technology and Innovation in order to obtain a more just and equitable knowledge society.”.
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As a second dimension, Luna says that it is necessary to work from the regional level.
“Colombia is a country that finds it difficult to jointly identify and solve its problems. From the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation we want to promote investments aimed at addressing problems or taking advantage of common opportunities between different departments. This could mobilize projects with a greater amount of resources, have a greater number of beneficiaries and will avoid making fragmented investments that have proven to be ineffective in the field of CTeI“, said.
As a third point, he adds that the situations that have been experienced with the pandemic show that “It is necessary to develop research of national interest and benefit aimed at generating infrastructure and capacities in order to obtain autonomy in the development of our own fertilizers.”.
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To that extent, from this portfolio they want “Betting on investments in national strategic Macroprojects (of the order of $100,000 to $300,000 million), which provide solutions to national problems and tend to significantly increase the productivity of the national and popular economy”.
In addition, from the ministry it is expected to launch “the biennial plan of calls for the 2023-2024 biennium, with which it is expected to mobilize the largest allocation of resources in CTeI in recent years, corresponding to $2.9 billion”.
Additionally, DNP and minsciences they are working on making the requirements for projects more flexible.
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The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation realizes that the royalty resources have impacted sectors such as: agriculture and rural development (22%), education (22%), saltYou and social protection (fifteen%), toenvironment and sustainable development (12%), trade, industry and tourism (10%) and the remaining 18% in the sectors of information technology and communications, culture, among others.
Regarding public calls, resources for $2.7 trillion have been approved for topics such as: covid emergency (26%), innovation (fifteen%), Investigation and development (13%), social appropriation of knowledge (10%), bicentennial scholarships (8%), strengthening HEIs (7%), high-level training (4%) and 17% in other subjects.
CLAUDIA M. QUINTERO RUEDA
Portfolio Journalist
