Recife, March 2, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - This year the federal government will allot R$ 80 million from the Federal Budget to finance a variety of research projects in the health field. The announcement was made yesterday (1) in Recife by the Minister of Health, Humberto Costa, at a ceremony to inaugurate the first high security public laboratory in the country, at the Aggeu Magalhães Research Center, in the city's university complex.

Costa said that the project priorities, which were defined last year in Brasília at a seminar attended by 200 representatives of research institutions throughout Brazil, will be approved during a seminar scheduled for mid-year as part of the program in the health area of the National Science and Technology Conference.

According to the Minister, the research runs from high technology sectors, such as stem cells for transplants and other treatments, to applied management studies, such as resource control in the Federal Health System (SUS) and improvements in the quality of care. He pointed out that the idea is to work in conjunction with the Ministry of Science and Technology, to avoid overlapping in some projects and to broaden the scope of what is being researched. (DAS)