The São Paulo State Academy of Sciences (ACIESP) plans to launch a book by December on cutting-edge science in São Paulo and Brazil in seven select themes, which will also examine the major opportunities for research in these areas over the coming years. The book is being produced and published in honor of FAPESP’s 60th anniversary, celebrated in May. Every month, a new chapter will be made available online at 60anos.fapesp.br/aciesp.
The first, to be released in June, shows the importance of international partnerships and collaborative research to the advancement of knowledge and the efforts made by the foundation to promote them. It was coordinated by Hernan Chaimovich, a professor at the Chemistry Institute of the University of São Paulo (IQ-USP), with contributions from Helena Nader, Glaucius Oliva, Jorge Guimarães, Edgar Zanotto, Sergio Novaes, Marilda Bottesi, and Chaimovich himself. “In this chapter, we sought to explore how policies for promoting international collaborations affected the position of Brazilian science in the world and the role of FAPESP programs in this process,” says Chaimovich.
The content of the book was discussed in a series of seminars organized by ACIESP and FAPESP between December 2021 and May 2022 to celebrate the foundation’s 60th anniversary. Every chapter was contributed to by a group of senior researchers respected in the scientific community and one early-career scientist from an institution in the state of São Paulo, to ensure that the past and future of every research topic were covered.
A chapter on global climate change will be published in July, coordinated by USP physicist Paulo Artaxo. The themes covered in the following months will be biodiversity conservation, coordinated by Carlos Joly from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP); food security, by Bernadette de Melo Franco, from USP; computing, by Claudia Bauzer Medeiros from UNICAMP; chronic and infectious diseases, by Adriano Andricopulo from USP; and violence and radicalization, by Sergio Adorno from USP. In December, a print edition of the complete book will be released in Portuguese and English.
The topics were chosen through conversations between ACIESP and FAPESP directors. “The themes were selected based on the perception of which areas are important to the future. The objective was to better integrate the science produced in the state of São Paulo with the rest of Brazil and the world,” explains chemist Adriano Andricopulo, CEO of ACIESP and one of the leaders of the initiative. The book will also cover FAPESP’s contribution to each of the selected themes, highlighting the creation of research centers in these areas, explains USP biologist Marie-Anne Van Sluys, a member of the FAPESP scientific board’s Adjunct Panel for Special Programs and Research Collaborations who represents the funding agency on the committee producing the book.
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