Investment reached R$1.76 billion via a record number of fellowships and research grants
Alexandre Affonso/Pesquisa FAPESP
Last year, FAPESP invested R$1,767,329,896 in a record number of projects: 27,095 fellowships and research grants, a 17.6% increase over the 2023 total. Over the course of a year, 12,952 new projects were contracted. The performance signals an almost complete recovery from the setbacks caused by the pandemic at São Paulo’s universities and scientific institutions. The total funding provided by the foundation in 2024 was 29.3% higher than in 2023, and in current values, it is the largest in its history. Adjusted for inflation, however, the figure still falls slightly short of the amount invested in 2019, before the emergence of COVID-19.
Alexandre Affonso / Pesquisa FAPESP
These data were shared in the FAPESP Annual Report 2024, released in September. The document is available on the foundation’s website, where annual funding data are also available for every year since 1962, when FAPESP began operating. The progress achieved in 2024 was driven by measures designed to make it easier for researchers to submit proposals and for the foundation to review them, as well as increases to the maximum limit for funding (from R$300,000 to R$600,000 for regular research grants) and fellowships (increased by up to 45%). For postdoctoral fellows, FAPESP now reimburses social security contributions and has extended the duration of fellowships from 24 to 36 months. In 2024, FAPESP awarded a total of 10,275 fellowships in Brazil and abroad—30% more than the previous year. “2024 was a year of major advances in research, funding, and for the foundation itself, as we recovered from the pandemic and reinforced an optimistic outlook for São Paulo’s science, technology, and innovation ecosystem,” wrote Marco Antonio Zago, president of the FAPESP Board of Trustees, in the report’s introduction.
Alexandre Affonso / Pesquisa FAPESP
In April 2024, the foundation added two new initiatives to its portfolio of strategic programs. The first, QuTIa (Quantum Technologies Initiative), aims to attract talent and stimulate the development of quantum technologies and related startups in the state of São Paulo. Five proposals submitted by early-career researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP), the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), and the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) were initially selected to receive five years of funding. A second call for proposals was issued in 2025. The second initiative, the South Atlantic and Antarctica Program (PROASA), seeks to expand our knowledge of the Antarctic ocean and continent by strengthening Brazilian and international research networks. The program is managed through a partnership between FAPESP, France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), and Argentina’s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET).
Alexandre Affonso / Pesquisa FAPESP
Established FAPESP programs also gained new momentum. In May 2024, the foundation announced the creation of three new Research, Innovation, and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs), in a call for proposals focused on the fields of humanities and social sciences, architecture and urban planning, and economics and business. The first, the Center for Favela Studies based at UFABC, will promote studies involving data modeling, public policy evaluation, and relationships between the urban economy and the transformation of favela environments. The second approved RIDC, called Bridge: Ecosystem Management for Sustainable Transitions, is based at USP’s School of Economics, Business, Accounting, and Actuarial Science (FEA-USP). Its objective is to create a bridge between academia and society for ecosystem management, to address challenges related to the climate crisis, deindustrialization, and social inequalities. The third is the Center for Governance of Global Environmental Change, based at the São Paulo Business School at Fundação Getulio Vargas (EAESP-FGV), intended for research in the fields of management and economics in interdisciplinary projects seeking solutions to environmental challenges. The RIDCs will receive long-term funding for up to 11 years and will bring together multidisciplinary teams working on topics at the frontier of scientific knowledge. There were 24 RIDCs operating in 2024.
Alexandre Affonso/Pesquisa FAPESP
Meanwhile, two new centers focused on citrus farming have been added to the FAPESP Engineering Research Centers/Applied Research Centers (CPE/CPA) program, which creates research networks cofunded by the foundation, partner companies, and host institutions. The first, in cooperation with the company Citrosuco, is based at the Sylvio Moreira Citriculture Center at the Agronomic Institute (IAC) in Cordeirópolis and aims to develop innovative solutions to ensure the sustainability of São Paulo’s juice industry. The second is a partnership with the Brazilian Fund for Citrus Protection (FUNDECITRUS), based at USP’s Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ-USP) in Piracicaba. Its focus is to tackle the main diseases in citrus farming, such as citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC), also known as yellowing, sudden citrus death, and greening, which affected 44% of orchards in São Paulo in 2024. FUNDECITRUS has partnered with FAPESP several times before, most notably in 2000 on the pioneering genome sequencing of Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium of economic interest that causes citrus yellowing (see Pesquisa FAPESP issue n° 50).
Alexandre Affonso / Pesquisa FAPESP
“Together, we have already achieved important research results that allowed us to establish effective strategies for mitigating and understanding greening. Now, we have taken a major step toward transforming citrus farming in the state of São Paulo,” said FAPESP’s scientific director, Marcio de Castro Silva Filho, at the center’s inauguration. In 2024, two CPAs were selected to study artificial intelligence applied to healthcare—one based at UNICAMP and the other at USP’s Institute of Mathematical and Computer Sciences (ICMC) in São Carlos. There were 27 of these centers operating that year, funded by FAPESP and companies such as Shell, GSK, EMBRAPA, and Embraer.
In innovation, 2024 was marked by efforts to sustain startups funded by FAPESP’s Innovative Research in Small Businesses program (PIPE)—with 1,324 fellowships and grants paying out in 2024—and to align the foundation’s actions with the demands of the state’s innovation ecosystem. One of the highlights of the year was the first public call for investment funds (FIPs), issued in partnership with the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and other financial institutions, with a commitment to invest in companies participating in or graduating from the PIPE program. “We are now working with five FIPs, which invest in companies that have graduated from PIPE,” explained economist Carlos Américo Pacheco, then chairman of the FAPESP Executive Board, at the end of last year. “We also selected two angel investor groups and two crowdfunding platforms to raise funds and invest in companies that are part of PIPE. These approaches go beyond funding research, helping companies through their growth stages.”
The foundation also resumed its FAPESP Week events, held in various countries to strengthen cooperation between researchers from São Paulo and others from abroad. The meetings, put on hold since 2020 due to the pandemic, returned with a new feature: now, in addition to scientists from São Paulo, managers and researchers from PIPE-supported startups with internationalization strategies, selected via public calls, also participate in the events. Four meetings were held in 2024: in Chicago, USA; Shenzhen and Dongguan, China; Bologna, Italy; and Madrid, Spain.
The foundation’s annual income comes from 1% of the state of São Paulo’s tax revenue, transferred by the treasury as outlined in the São Paulo State Constitution, in addition to FAPESP’s own revenue streams and through joint research funding agreements with institutions and companies. In 2024, these revenues totaled R$2.8 billion, 22% more than in 2023. The state treasury transferred R$2.17 billion, the foundation’s own revenue streams provided R$401 million, and funds from agreements amounted to R$243 million. By the end of 2024, FAPESP had committed to R$3.25 billion of investment over the following years, of which R$1.09 billion will be through fellowships and R$2.16 billion in grants.
The story above was published with the title “Back on track” in issue 356 of October/2025.
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