Research Career in Argentina.

The National Research Council of Argentina (CONICET) was founded in 1958, a nd the Research Career opened officially two years later (1960). Originally , 214 scientists belonged to this Career, increasing slowly to 3642 members in 1999. There are 5 categories of investigators, besides the Clinical inv estigator class for the area of Medical Sciences. Investigators comprise 46 %, while Technicians (34%) and Fellows (20%) account for the rest of CONICE T research personnel. The low number of Fellows is a matter of worry, altho ugh Fellows from universities, local councils and private foundations contr ibute to increase their total number. There is an irregular regional distri bution of Investigators, most of whom work in the Federal Capital and Provi nce of Buenos Aires (61%). Increasing the salary of those living outside th e metropolitan area did not solve the problem. Input to the Research Career has been erratic and not well planned, while mechanisms for personnel outp ut due to low productivity or retirement age has had variable and erratic p olicies. The problem the Research Career is facing is similar to that of ot her areas of CONIGET, due to an extremely low budget. Hopefully, new CONICE T authorities will be active scientists considering Science and Technology as a Matter of State, just as important for the country as health, educatio n or recovery of the Malvinas Islands.