Research Solidarity Platform

The crisis in Brazilian research funding has been intensifying across the country since 2017, when the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications (MCTIC) suffered a 44% budget cut. Other cuts followed this, such as the recent 18,2% reduction in the budget of the Ministry of Education (MEC) in its discretionary expenditure budget scheduled for the year 2021. This serious restriction of resources for funding bodies impacted both the laboratory infrastructure and the research and postgraduate scholarships provided by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), and by other research funding bodies, which were also affected by other budget cuts.

Faced with this scenario “whose cuts affect researchers from different regions of the country unequally, causing a major negative impact on the generation of knowledge and the training of human resources in postgraduate studies”, and seeking alternatives to avoid further losses, in 2017, the then coordinator of the Medicine I area at CAPES and current professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the State University of Campinas (FCM Unicamp), José Gontijo, had the idea of ​​developing a collaborative platform between researchers spread across the country so that research would not stop .

The professor said he was inspired by aid and collaboration programs that were taking place between European researchers promoted by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), aimed at countries affected by financial crises or armed conflicts such as Greece and Syria, which made it possible to share inputs and the reception in research laboratories, situations similar, in severity, to those that still affect researchers in Brazil:

“The initial idea that motivated us was to allow, at least, the dissertations and theses in progress to be completed to avoid irreversible damage to the training of Master's and Doctorate students. So, I sought help from FCM's Information Technology (IT) team to design a tool, as a means of communication and contact between researchers, that would allow donations, exchanges or loans of equipment and supplies between universities. They were excited, designed and developed the entire platform”, recalls Gontijo about the motivations behind the software.

With the support of Cleusa Milani, Fabiana de Souza, Gabriel Ishizaki and Newton da Silva, who are IT employees at FCM Unicamp and honored alongside Professor Gontijo at the Inventors Award in the Licensed Technology category, it was possible to develop the software, which works as an electronic wall with publications of offers and demands for inputs, in addition to looking for ways to make it possible for the platform to reach as many researchers as possible. 

Partnerships to validate the technology

The search for partners who could take the idea beyond the code met with initiatives already underway between CAPES and the National Education and Research Network (RNP).

The director of services and solutions at RNP, Antônio Carlos Nunes, recalls that at the same time as the development of Unicamp's software, RNP and CAPES began the Initiative for the Dissemination of Services and Solutions for Science in Postgraduate Programs, known as PPGs initiative, which had the intention of understanding from the researchers themselves what their technological needs were and what ideas for solutions would be interesting to encourage for the benefit of the country's Postgraduate Programs.

“We were familiar with the solution developed by Unicamp and its value for the academic and scientific community was evident. Given the scenario we had at the time and still has, the scarcity of resources for teaching and research, the creation of Unicamp aimed to consolidate a network of researchers who could collaborate with each other, exchanging, lending, requesting or donating materials, equipment and inputs for your research. The platform brings together those who do science in the country, expands networks of contacts between these researchers and strengthens the development of Brazilian teaching and research”, argues Nunes about the value of the platform.

But before RNP licensed the technology for free to make the solution available in its catalog for the almost 200 thousand researchers spread across the country, it was necessary to validate whether the solution was truly suitable for end users, as well as the business model to offer the service.

And the task was carried out “by many hands”: RNP sought to structure and adapt the solution to offer it on a national scale, while CAPES placed the platform in the field to test, among researchers, its usability and collect evaluations of improvements so that was an easy and intuitive experience, as explained by Manoel Siqueira, coordinator of Information Management at CAPES:

“Having a national platform from a public university, with support from CAPES and RNP, which aims to share resources is very important and reinforces the collaborative role of research. And we, from the CAPES Assessment Board, always seek to encourage initiatives that strengthen the country's science, technology and innovation. We received very positive feedback from researchers about the platform”, explains Siqueira. 

Researchers from all over Brazil can now access

With the “electronic wall” solution validated and the understanding of how to offer access on a national scale for researchers, the launch of the platform was prepared, as well as the RNP licensing process using the software owned by Unicamp, signed in 2020 with support from the Innovation Agency.

Today the Solidarity with Research is available in the catalog of In the clouds, which brings together other services offered by RNP and its partners focusing on the Research and Education segment, and organizes it by macro areas of knowledge and type of publication, such as donation, loans, offers or requests.

To access the platform, students, teachers and researchers must be actively affiliated with one of the 531 higher education institutions in Brazil accredited in the Federated Academic Community (CAFe), which integrates and redirects for automatic authentication with each institution. For example, Unicamp's internal community accesses the system with the unique university password, without having to create a new registration to recognize your link.

According to the IT team at FCM Unicamp, since its launch, the platform has already received 41 publications, 20 of which were requests and 21 were offers, including supplies and books. So far, there have been two combinations of demands and donations made. But all partners hope that with increasing publicity, more researchers will use the platform to collaborate on the research of colleagues from other institutions. 

Solidarity with the COVID-19 pandemic task force

Due to the new coronavirus pandemic and in line with the Unicamp Task Force against Covid-19, a derivative platform called Solidarity with the Covid-19 Pandemic Task Force, which is not restricted to the academic public, and anyone can access it to collaborate, donate or request materials, equipment, supplies and other items, such as masks, gloves and alcohol gel to combat COVID-19.

“They are two distinct, independent platforms with different objectives. In other words, announcements made on one platform do not have an impact on the other and vice versa. Due to the pandemic, this new platform seeks to collaborate with health institutions, NGOs and other solidarity organizations”, explains Nunes about the derived platform.

It is also not necessary to register to access the platform, interested parties simply enter with the credentials already used in their Google or Facebook accounts. 

Participate in the Inventores Award webinar

With the aim of honoring students, alumni, researchers and teachers involved in technology protection and transfer activities at Unicamp, the Unicamp Innovation Agency annually holds the Inventors Award with various activities, which this year will have extra content in the webinar format .

During the event, it is possible to learn more about other innovations and participate in question and answer sessions with the public. Among the content, we will cover topics such as business opportunities for software, learn about some Unicamp technologies absorbed by the market, the protection of intellectual property and much more. Check the schedule complete here.

The event takes place over an entire day. It is possible to attend the tables and blocks of interest by accessing the same link at any time, which will be sent by email after registration.

Stay up to date with Unicamp's news and innovations. Sign up and participate!

original article published on the Unicamp Innovation Agency website.