The Minister of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications, Marcos Pontes, reported this Monday (3) that the federal government plans to invest R$ 10 million via the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in research aimed at mapping and sequencing of the new coronavirus.
According to Pontes, the value is still a forecast and should be applied in 2020. The information was released after a conference call on the new coronavirus with Science and Technology ministers from eight other countries (Germany, Canada, South Korea, United States, India, England, Italy, Japan and New Zealand).
In February, the department created the Virus Network, a research network involving scientists and laboratories to help combat emerging viruses, with an initial focus on coronaviruses and influenza. The group is made up of experts and representatives from the Ministry of Health, scientific entities and research units.
Minister Marcos Pontes stated in an interview with Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC):
“The idea is to work with the Ministry of Health to allocate resources so that this network can develop research. It will certainly help in terms of modeling this virus, mapping and sequencing this genome and many other possibilities in terms of treatment, clinical tests. So, Brazil can contribute a lot”
The research network will be coordinated by the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC) and will define an agenda of research priorities and future actions to help combat viruses in the country. The activity should be restricted to the field of scientific research, as an auxiliary and complementary to the initiatives of the Ministry of Health.
Ministers of Science
According to Marcos Pontes, the group of Science ministers discussed ways to exchange information about the new coranavirus between countries and how there can be collaboration between countries.
“We deal with three issues: what we are doing in each of these countries in terms of research to help the health part itself. Second: how can we exchange data; and third, how we can collaborate with different countries”, explained Pontes. The group of ministers is part of the Carnegie Group of Science Advisers, created in 1991 to annually bring together Science Ministers from different countries.
According to the minister, the group has been working on mapping and identifying the origin of the new coronavirus.
“Research and development has a series of factors that work in the search to identify the virus, the genome, the modeling. With this type of identification, we can have an idea of where it comes from, what type of virus we received here in Brazil. It is important for us to be aware of this spread”, he added.
Pontes expects the group to maintain contact via teleconference on a weekly basis.
Source: DATA
