Precisely on this May 15th, National Strike Day against the current government's cuts in funding to public universities, the Solidarity to Research platform was launched at Unicamp, for sharing inputs between researchers linked to postgraduate programs in the country. The objective is to publicize intentions of donations, requests and loans of basic inputs used in research, through a publication system, in partnership with Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) and RNP (National Education and Research Network) . The new system was designed by professor José Antonio Rocha Gontijo and developed by the Information Technology (IT) staff at the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM).
“During a Capes evaluation process, there were several consultants working from 8 in the morning to 10 at night and who had not received a salary and resources to support research without being released. That was two years ago and was already a harbinger of the worsening situation today”, recalls José Antonio Gontijo, professor at FCM and head of the Rectory’s Office. “I spoke with the director of Evaluation and the president of Capes looking for some proposal for assistance, mainly for professors at UERJ and UFRJ, who were experiencing the peak of the crisis in their institutions. But there was no immediate form of help at that time.”
It was also two years ago, Gontijo continues, in Europe in crisis due to problems such as Greece and Syria, that he received a statement from a European molecular biology organization requesting the opening of research benches to allocate researchers from those countries. “I thought we could do the same in Brazil, albeit to a lesser extent, mainly with research funding. I spoke to the IT staff at FCM, who started working on the website. The interest of Capes and RNP made it easier for that initial idea to grow and gain national scope. It’s a small idea, but it contributes to the more appropriate use of public resources.”
Cleusa Regina Milani, IT analyst at FCM, states that the Solidariedade à Pesquisa website, whose pilot at Unicamp should go into production next week, was subjected to evaluation by several postgraduate programs, receiving praise for its ease of use . “The proposal is for the site to be fully moderated and managed by the scientific community itself, without the involvement of FCM, which will only promote contact between interested parties. In addition to inputs such as reagents, we identified a more comprehensive need, such as books and equipment. A group from Rio de Janeiro, for example, developed a project to remove trash from the ocean using disused equipment from another researcher.”
For professor Teresa Atvars, general coordinator of Unicamp, the Solidariedade à Pesquisa platform is a demonstration that universities are collaborating with government bodies by providing communication channels that allow local problems to be resolved. “It is a joint project with Capes and RNP, made possible by a qualified team from FCM, and very important especially at a time when resources for science and technology are scarce. This network will facilitate interaction between researchers to overcome their difficulties, whether momentary or not.”
