Original article: “Las cifras no calzan”: físico deja mal parado a Kast por dichos sobre investigación
«The Numbers Don’t Add Up», with this strong statement, physicist and science communicator Sebastián Molina addressed the comments made by José Antonio Kast, who once again questioned the use of public resources in universities and scientific research.
In a post shared on his social media, Molina systematically disproved the claims made by the president, creating a new chapter in the ongoing debate about science funding in Chile.
The controversy began when Kast, during a discussion about fiscal spending on higher education held in Puerto Montt, made a statement that sparked backlash. «Sometimes 100 million, 500 million, for research that ends up as a beautifully bound book in the library. How many jobs did it create? None,» the far-right politician claimed, amidst significant fiscal tightening and controversial budget cuts of 3% to various ministries, including one as essential for national development as the Ministry of Science.
The budget cuts also included the temporary suspension of master’s and postdoctoral scholarships abroad.
Kast’s remarks aimed to challenge the social and economic returns on public investment in research, were deemed by the physics graduate from the Catholic University as inaccurate and out of context. “President Kast, I respond with respect: what you said is not true,” he firmly stated, before laying out a comprehensive set of arguments.
The first point of contention was the figures. Molina explained that the largest individual grant provided by the Chilean state to researchers is the regular Fondecyt, which has an annual cap of 57 million pesos, far from the 100 or 500 million mentioned by Kast.
“First and foremost, the numbers don’t add up; the regular Fondecyt, which is the largest individual grant awarded by the state to researchers, has an annual cap of 57 million pesos,” he noted in a video shared on his Instagram account «Física en 1 minuto,» which boasts 360,000 followers.
To reach figures like those, he argued, one would have to discuss large-scale institutional projects, such as Milenio Centers, Anillo projects, or Fondap, involving dozens of researchers, students, technicians, and support staff working over several years. “We are not talking about a single study; we are talking about a complete center,” he clarified.
Molina also refuted the claim that such research does not generate jobs. “Saying that this didn’t create any jobs makes no sense,” he emphasized, recalling that science produces qualified employment essential for the nation’s development. In that context, he provided a revealing statistic: Chile invests only 0.4% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in research, whereas the average for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reaches 2.7%.
“We are investing seven times less than the countries we compare ourselves to,” he warned.
“The structural problem of science in Chile is not that there is too much money, Mr. President; it is that there is not enough,” he concluded.
