The paper presents the history and grounds of Science & Technology development in the realm of Public Health, and their relationships with Brazilian scientific milieu. The authors discuss the intrinsic logic of scientific policies and the way they are incorporated by the field of health sciences as a complex system of interaction of the academic scene with funding sources and the Brazilian professional association devoted to Public Health (ABRASCO). The paper addresses the scope of scientific knowledge in Brazilian Public Health, and the role of funding agencies and their strategies of evaluation. Finally, recent trends and current dilemmas of Public Health as a scientific endeavor are analyzed.
Science & Technology; Public Health; Scientific Policy; Intellectual Realm