La Derecha Diario The government will reform CONICET's board of directors and will terminate ideological projects.
Unusual initiatives approved during Massa's administration, which were never funded, will be reviewed and canceled
The Government of Javier Milei will carry out a deep reform in the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), the country's main scientific promotion agency, with the aim of eliminating delirious ideological projects of Kirchnerism that sought to be financed with the money of all Argentinians.
The measure includes a complete renewal of the agency's board and the cancellation of dozens of initiatives approved by the previous administration, which have no utility for Argentina's productive development.
The decision was confirmed to this outlet by the Secretary of Innovation, Science, and Technology of the Nation, DarĆo Genua, who, since the beginning of Milei's Government, has been conducting an audit on the use of resources in the national scientific system, avoiding allocating public funds to ideological projects that do not respond to real science.
This review found that former Minister of Economy Sergio Massa gave the green light to numerous "research projects" without having the funds to finance them, since the budget had been diverted for other purposes, including the Kirchnerist campaign for the 2023 elections.
Despite having approved the allocations, Massa never made the payments effective. After the change of government, Genua refused to execute those disbursements, in line with the Milei administration's commitment to put an end to waste and reorder the State's priorities, including science and technology.
The technical review revealed a pattern of allocations aimed more at satisfying ideological and clientelist demands than at promoting real innovation or national competitiveness. Many of the PICT projects (Scientific and Technological Research Projects), instead of focusing on science, technological development, or strategic research, addressed topics related to gender agendas, cultural studies, or ideological whims without any real productive impact.
Among the titles approved under this logic, the following stand out: "Dissident sexualities from Amerindian philosophies, trans epistemologies, and biomedicine (UBA)", "Restricted work trajectories: gender and intersectionality in the labor participation of LGBTIQ+ people in Jujuy (UNQ)", or "Initiatives with a gender perspective in primary and secondary school bathrooms (CONICET)", among many others.
These examples show a distortion of the scientific system by Kirchnerism, which turned it into a clientelist subsidy machine, where the base of beneficiaries expanded without criteria of efficiency, public utility, or impact assessment. Institutions such as national universities, municipalities, and institutes with a strong left-wing partisan imprint were some of the main beneficiaries of this dynamic.
With the new composition of the board, Milei's Government will seek to set a new course for CONICET. Projects aimed at applied science, technology with a direct impact on production, and scientific research of excellence will be promoted, with a much more rigorous and transparent evaluation and allocation of funds.
The decision marks a historic shift in Argentine scientific policy, which for years was dominated by a populist and partisan logic rather than the true promotion of knowledge useful to society.
More posts: