The Unicamp Scientific Initiation Congress, an event already consolidated in the country, will leave the regional constituency to win the global competition. All works presented at the congress will receive a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier), which is a type of identification that will allow you to track and locate these publications on the internet anywhere on the planet. As a result, the work will have greater international visibility. 

This will be one of the new features of the XXIII Scientific Initiation Congress, which will take place from the 17th to the 19th of this month at the University's Multidisciplinary Gymnasium (GMU). The opening ceremony takes place on the 17th, at 13:30 pm, at the Convention Center. The congress is promoted by the University's Dean of Research (PRP).

At this meeting, 1.353 works will be presented, with the participation of 1.514 registered students, noting a slight increase in numbers compared to last year, when 1.348 works were presented and 1.485 students registered. In the last two years, PRP started a campaign to increase the participation of scholarship students from the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp), a strategy that proved to be successful. 

Last year, the number jumped from 46 to 118 Fapesp scholarship students and, in this version of the event, it jumped to 122 students, already representing almost 10% of the total work registered at the event. The estimate is that 7.500 people will visit the GMU and the Convention Center over the three days. See the schedule at https://www.prp.rei.unicamp.br/pibic/congressos/xxiiicongresso/.

Another novelty is that this year PRP invited students from Unicamp's technical schools to participate in the event. The Unicamp Technical College (Cotuca) confirmed its presence and will present the best works from the Science Fair, which took place last October. The students from this school will join the students from the High School Scientific Initiation Scholarship Program (Pibic-EM) who are already participating in the congress. 

Furthermore, the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency will also have an important presence at the congress. This participation should give even more weight to the event, as Inova always presents the knowledge produced at the institution and the work of a scientific initiation whose aspect is technological.

Inova works at Unicamp, identifying opportunities and promoting activities to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, expanding the impact of teaching, research and extension. 

Among the roles that Inova plays is patent filing. The team produces a profile regarding the technology with the purpose of highlighting its differential, marketing and commercialization potential. With the researcher, Inova Unicamp analysts file the patent application with the National Institute of Industrial Property (Inpi). This technology is then disseminated to companies interested in continuing its development until the product is brought to the market.

According to professor Gláucia Maria Pastore, holder of the PRP portfolio, all the improvements that the Unicamp Scientific Initiation Congress has produced have made it acquire more importance, whether due to the quality of the work presented, or the support of the work supervisors, or by the organization. “Everything leads us to believe that investing in scientific initiation really is a great achievement,” she says. 

All the changes implemented, according to the pro-rector, aim to best serve the public who will attend the presentations and who will perform. “At this moment, PRP is also very encouraged by the complimentary comment that Unicamp’s Pibic received from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). We are sure that this result is thanks to the quality of the work”, he highlights.

Fernando Coelho, current coordinator of the event and advisor to the PRP, says that the congress has evolved in recent years with the aim of becoming a scientific initiation event whose relevance is increasingly accentuated. “We don’t want to fulfill just one step required by the CNPq. The idea is to draw attention to the congress because the quality of the work is excellent, the students participate intensely and this causes the first seed of Unicamp's research to appear, which already begins with scientific initiation, certainly generating many fruits .”

Coelho credits the campaigns with much of the responsibility for bringing more scientific initiation and Pibic-EM students to Unicamp, attracting more attention and projects to the congress. “We don’t have the slightest doubt about that,” he emphasizes. In recent editions, the motto of the event has been “Unicamp’s research starts here”. “That’s exactly what we believe”, he guarantees. 

Next year, the event should be open to the community outside Unicamp (Universities and Research Centers in the region) within the context of Unicamp's 50th anniversary. “Maybe we can take advantage of this opportunity and 'vitaminize' the event even more. We do work that other institutions in the region would like to do, and the fact that it happens at Unicamp ends up bringing even more prestige to our University”, says Coelho. 

CONCEPT 

Professor Gláucia Pastore says that there is a discussion in the PRP with the CNPq so that the congress will soon be open to all other higher education institutions, so that the work can be further qualified and put various research groups into discussion. “We haven't done this yet because we are evaluating how this introduction should be carried out, considering all possibilities, including spatial issues and the necessary infrastructure”, she points out. She points out that one of the biggest obstacles to the event's growth is the difficulty of finding suitable space to host it.

The Scientific Initiation Congress is aimed at undergraduate students at Unicamp and seeks to encourage young people in the activities, methodologies, knowledge and practices of technological development and innovation processes. Its evolution depends a lot on the concept, qualification and attention and interest that is placed on scientific initiation, in addition to its impact. 

For Gláucia Pastore, the congress is really the basis of what postgraduate studies at the University will be like. “This makes people more attentive to this entry into the Science and Technology System, which clearly has the start with scientific initiation”, he reflects. 

The student who opts for postgraduate studies, she comments, after having completed scientific initiation, already enters a different scale, and may even be exempt from the master's degree and go directly to the doctorate, as some courses at Unicamp already allow. “This experience also counts when applying for a job in the job market.” 

In the dean's opinion, students do this work very well because they have already had training in what in-depth data analysis is, how to report it and how to present it. “These are attributes we want in a graduate student,” she says. “So I think that Unicamp, by creating a research environment, is setting itself up to become a training center for highly qualified researchers.”

Every year, the congress invites an external committee of high-level experts to evaluate the works submitted to Unicamp. They express great difficulty in selecting the best ones. With the result, the awarded students take part in a ceremony held at the University Council (Consu), the highest body of the University. In general, the award ceremony is presided over by the dean of Unicamp and attended by all pro-rectors.

“This is one of the ways found by the institution to include undergraduate students in research, encouraging them to develop projects from the first year onwards. And my invitation is for everyone to participate. It will be a great pleasure to welcome you: advisors, teachers, students, family and visitors. May our entire community support the event and may each unit value its students, as they are indeed very good”, highlights dean Gláucia Pastore.