ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a general and brief description of the main changes that characterize the new policy, and the most significant processes that preceded it. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Survey on Mexico for the year 2000 emphasized Mexico's low level in research and development (R&D) and innovation mechanisms in comparison to other OECD nations. Mexican science and technology (S&T) policy has been reengineered and transformed to the extent of being a mandatory public policy as defined by the Constitution. The importance of S&T too many aspects of Mexican life is incorporated in the evolution of the budgetary structure of R&D during the 1990s. The law defines the set of instances that permit the institutionalization of the tasks of the several actors that make decisions about scientific and technological research in Mexico. These include organizations and bodies that comprise the traditional "scientific community".
