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It is not primarily in the articulation of a human right that it is given life, but in its implementation. With the adoption by the United Nations (UN) of an authoritative statement on the meaning of the right to science, 1 the time is now to shift the focus of attention from conceptualization to implementation. To that end, this study moves beyond the previous work of the scientific, engineering, and health communities aimed at defining the right to science. The question at the heart of this study is whether there is potential for national academies to adopt a central role in the implementation of the right to science, serving as intermediaries to distill and frame key priorities regarding the right within their national context, and providing locally relevant and feasible recommendations for how their governments might fulfill their obligations under the right.The "right to science" is a shorthand used to describe Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). According to the text of Article 15, countries that are a party to the treaty (171 in total as of July 2021) 2 are obligated to recognize the right of everyone to "enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications," to ensure the "conservation, development and diffusion of science," to protect "the freedom indispensable for * The authors are grateful to Mina Mortchev and Julia Ziaee, interns at AAAS, who contributed to the preliminary analysis of the questionnaire data and conducted interviews as part of this study. The authors also acknowledge the IAP and GYA for distributing the questionnaire, and all the academies and their members and staff who responded to the questionnaire and participated in interviews. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies, or the InterAcademy Partnership. 1 We use the term "science" to refer to the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural, social, engineering, and medical worlds following an iterative and systematic methodology based on evidence.

Argentine science in crisis again Several board members of Argentina's National Council for Science and Technology (CONICET) issued an alarming document late last year on the financial crisis that is afflicting the central administration and its hundreds of research institutes. They offered a dark prognosis for the months to come. Budget cuts over the past three years have severely curtailed the recruitment of researchers and technical staff. The repatriation of Argentinian researchers, international collaborations, academic contacts and conferences are all affected. Infrastructure and equipment in national laboratories, animal facilities and libraries are deteriorating. The result is an ageing and demoralized science community. Scientific research is starting to give ground to other national interests and goals. The situation echoes that of 18 years ago, albeit with a different context and cast of characters, and again it threatens to quell the dynamism of Argentina's research community.