The Serrapilheira Institute launched its sixth public call to support science. The public notice, which has been held annually since 2017, will offer a total of BRL 9.1 million to ten scientists at the beginning of their careers. The value for each person will vary from R$ 200 thousand to R$ 700 thousand, to be used over five years.
Persons with a permanent link to a Brazilian research institution, who have completed their doctorate from 2015 to 2020 and published two or more impact articles as the main author and who work in the areas of natural sciences, computing or mathematics (or interdisciplinary) can participate. . In the case of women with children, the doctorate may have been completed by this year.
The institute's science director, Cristina Caldas, says that they are looking for projects that are original and avoid “more of the same”. “We are really inviting young scientists to think about the big questions in their areas of study that have not yet been answered. These are fundamental questions, without necessarily an obvious applicability of that knowledge”, says Caldas.
A differential of the call this year to help achieve this objective is the definition of the risk that the project will not work out. When applying, the candidate needs to detail whether his idea has a design, approach or technical risk, and, from that, think of ways out so that the proposal does not stop in the face of these possible difficulties.
“If you keep doing things like everyone else already does or thinking the way all your colleagues think, you will actually be making a ‘broth' there, which is important. But we believe that the more risk you take , the more chance science has to advance”, justifies the director of the institute.
How the selection process will work
The names will be chosen through two steps. In the first, candidates send some documents and answer ten questions about the idea. Then, renowned international scholars will select a part for the second stage. In this one, the pre-approved ones will send the detailed project and participate in an interview in English with the foreign reviewers.
Thinking of a way to increase diversity among scientists, the ten winners will have access to an additional amount of up to 30% of the support received to invest in the integration and training of people from groups underrepresented in science in their research teams.
Caldas says that this theme has already been worked on in previous public notices. “We really encourage them to look at the racial issue very rigorously. We started to educate them on the topic of diversity. They start to take a very careful look at it within their groups.”
Another novelty for this edition is the partnership with public entities, such as Confap (National Council of State Research Support Foundations) and Fapesp (São Paulo Research Support Foundation).
“This public notice is a message that science is fundamental for you to maintain a country rich in ideas, engaged, with an active, thinking community, looking not only at the great basic questions of science, but also at your own problems. So , I think it comes at a time of reinforcing and valuing the science developed in Brazil”, concludes Caldas.
Applications are open from October 28 to November 28. The disclosure of the chosen names and the start of support will be made from June 2023.