The rector of Unicamp, Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles, participated on March 29 in the 10th Meeting with Suppliers and Partners, promoted by the National Education and Research Network (RNP). He presented short, medium and long-term strategic actions for partner companies to identify new business opportunities with the education, research and innovation ecosystem in Brazil.
An information technology company, RNP enables activities to promote teaching, research and extension. It also offers several other products to the university community, such as videoconferencing systems (web conferencing similar to programs like Google Meet and Zoom), an audiovisual content platform (edupplay, similar to YouTube), virtual learning environment (Moodle), worldwide WiFi authentication (eduroam).
At the meeting, the dean explained the HIDS project (International HUB for Sustainable Development) – an intelligent district, organized around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations and which is being implemented near the Unicamp campus in Baron Geraldo, in Campinas.
Meirelles invited RNP partners to join the HUB, which will house innovation and research centers, some of them shared by academia, the public and private sectors. “And we, from Unicamp, want RNP to be part of this project”, stated the dean.
The rector of the University stated that Brazil is, today, in the world, the best country to make the transition to a renewable economy. “Brazil has similarities with the US, but it has much more natural potential to carry out this transition,” he said.
Meirelles recalled that Unicamp has several lines of research in the area of energy transition and that some of them are supported by companies. In one of them is the oil company Shell, which works to make the production of bioethanol possible in the northeastern semi-arid region.
The dean also recalled another project financed by CPFL Energia in the generation of electricity with photovoltaic cells, in addition to several other projects in the areas of bioenergy and renewable energy.
There are also projects in the health area carried out in partnership with Samsung and IBM.
Redecomep
Unicamp is a relevant partner of RNP. The University houses, for example, one of the three headquarters of the Network, where some of its services operate, such as the Security Incident Response Center (Cais). The company is located in the Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) building, in Cidade Universitária Zeferino Vaz. In addition, several Unicamp professionals, students, professors and employees associated with RNP in different ways over the years.
Another point in common is the fact that Unicamp is responsible for managing Redecomep – Community Network for Education and Research in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas –, connecting various entities, such as the Renato Archer Information Technology Center (CTI), the National Center for Energy and Materials Research (CNPEM) and the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC).
