FAPESP allocates 52% of research funding to projects with economic and social impact

In 2014, the São Paulo Research Foundation invested $ PPP 390.08 million in scientific and technological research, according to its annual report.

By Jussara Mangini

Agência FAPESP – With an income of $ 413.57 million in purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2014, FAPESP allocated $ PPP 390.08 million to funding for scientific and technological research developed in São Paulo State, Brazil, according to its 2014 Annual Report (executive version). The report was launched on July 22 at the foundation’s headquarters. An exhibition of works by the artist Maria Bonomi was unveiled during the ceremony. Twenty-two works by Bonomi illustrate the report.

The report shows that transfers from the São Paulo State Treasury accounted for 82% of FAPESP’s income in 2014. São Paulo’s constitution requires these transfers, which must be equivalent to 1% of the state’s annual tax revenue.

The rest of FAPESP’s revenue came from financial income on interest-bearing assets and other sources, such as joint funding agreements under which partners prefer to transfer funds for FAPESP to manage disbursement.

“Despite the economic slowdown and the resulting fall in the state’s tax revenue in 2014, FAPESP was able to fulfill its commitments and carry out its mission of supporting the development of research in São Paulo State for the benefit of society,” said Celso Lafer, FAPESP’s President.

In 2014, FAPESP received 18,286 applications for research funding. It signed 11,609 new contracts to fund projects submitted in 2014 and previous years and maintained 11,197 existing scholarships.

Allocation of funds

FAPESP allocated just over half of its investment (52%) to research projects with clear application potential through 15 programs, including one program that stimulates innovative research by small firms, another that promotes joint research by private enterprise and universities, and a program that supports research to contribute to the formulation of public policies in areas such as health, education and the environment.

A substantial proportion (41%) went to 12 lines of funding for research considered important to knowledge advancement, mainly consisting of programs that support education and training of human resources, as well as academic research. Finally, programs that provide funding for infrastructure to assure the continuity of research in São Paulo State at high standards of excellence accounted for 7%.

About a third of FAPESP’s investment in research in 2014 went to health sciences ($ PPP 128.65 million). “Historically, we have allocated more funds to research in health than any other area, owing to the number of researchers dedicated to this knowledge area in São Paulo State and to the strong demand for health project funding,” Lafer said.

Next came biological sciences with 15.87% ($ PPP 71.47 million), followed by humanities and social sciences with 10.44% ($ PPP 47.01 million), engineering with 10.27% ($ PPP 46.26 million), and agronomy & veterinary sciences with 8.21% ($ PPP 36.99 million).

The area that expanded the most was astronomy, which received 290% more funding in 2014 than in the previous year, mainly because FAPESP joined the international consortium responsible for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). Construction of the GMT observatory and the mechanical structure of the mega-telescope to be installed in the Chilean Andes is scheduled to begin soon.

“In the next ten years, FAPESP will invest US$ 40 million, or about 4% of the project’s estimated total cost, guaranteeing 4% of the GMT’s operating time for researchers from São Paulo as well as a seat on the consortium’s board. Opportunities for industry in São Paulo are already being created. The telescope is expected to begin scientific operations in 2021, and the amount of data it makes available will be 30 times the amount provided by telescopes currently in service,” said Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, FAPESP’s Scientific Director.

Researchers at São Paulo’s three state universities received 75% of the total funding disbursed in 2014: $ PPP 214.19 million went to the University of São Paulo (USP), $ PPP 27.59 million to the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), and $ PPP 60.39 million to São Paulo State University (UNESP).

Five percent of the total went to researchers at state research institutions, especially Butantan Institute, the University of São Paulo’s Heart Institute (INCOR-USP), the Ribeirao Preto Blood Center, the Campinas Institute of Agronomy (IAC), and the Energy & Nuclear Research Institute (IPEN).

Twelve percent of the total went to projects at federal higher education and research institutions in the state, led by the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), and institutions attached to the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation (MCTI).

Collaborative research

To increase the academic impact of the science produced in São Paulo, FAPESP uses mechanisms that promote collaboration between Brazilian and foreign researchers, especially in projects at the cutting-edge of scientific knowledge.

Programs such as Young Investigators (JP) and São Paulo Excellence Chairs (SPEC) bring top-tier researchers from abroad to lead research groups at universities in São Paulo.

Scientific meetings are also an opportunity to bring renowned scientists to Brazil. Four proposals were selected in 2014 for funding under the São Paulo Schools of Advanced Science Program (ESPCA), which helps scientists from São Paulo organize events that bring world-famous researchers to the state and enhance the visibility of its PhD programs and postdoctoral fellowship opportunities, especially for candidates from other countries and regions.

Four out of six proposals selected in 2013 were executed in 2014, including an ESPCA School organized by the University of São Paulo’s School of Economics, Administration & Accounting (FEA-USP). The course brought four Nobel Economics Laureates to Brazil: mathematician John Nash from Princeton University, who won the 1994 prize and died in May 2015; mathematician Robert Aumann from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, who won the prize in 2005; and economists Eric Maskin from Harvard University and Alvin Roth from Stanford University in the United States, winners of the prize in 2007 and 2012, respectively.

Scholarships and grants foster academic exchange. FAPESP approved 2,557 new exchange proposals in 2014, with regular funding lines accounting for 2,441 and international cooperation agreements for 116. The most frequently chosen destinations by order of preference were the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Canada, various Latin American and Caribbean countries, and Italy. The Overseas Research Traineeship Program (BEPE) accounted for the largest number of approved projects (984).

Internationalization

“In a globalized world, research is no longer territorialized,” Lafer said. “One of its dimensions is networking among researchers, hence the intensification of diplomacy for science and of international cooperation in this area: knowledge creation is not confined to a few centers, and science now operates in a flatter world, requiring more interconnection between researchers in all regions and disciplines. All this explains the internationalization effort to which I have devoted so much time and energy during my two terms as President of FAPESP.”

The number of cooperation agreements in force with other research funding agencies, universities and companies, as well as other institutions at home and abroad, reached 160 in 2014. Most of these were cross-border partnerships. In 2014 alone, FAPESP signed 40 new partnerships with organizations in 23 countries in Europe, South America, North America and Asia. Including ten new agreements signed until May 2015 and those signed in previous years, the number of international agreements reaches 134.

“The aim is to build the capabilities of São Paulo’s researchers in all areas, strengthening the comparative advantage in knowledge value-added that makes our state unique in Brazil. The irradiating effect of this knowledge on national life enables us to help augment Brazil’s capacity to tackle and overcome its challenges,” Lafer said.

The results of some of the research projects that are being conducted under the aegis of these cooperation agreements gained academic and media visibility during the editions of FAPESP Week 2014 held in China (Beijing), Germany (Munich) and the United States (California). The three events brought together a total of 418 researchers and inspired 238 news reports in Brazil and elsewhere.

These seminars have been held around the world by FAPESP since 2011 in partnership with institutions in countries internationally recognized for high-quality research. Their format is designed to present to a qualified audience the main findings of collaborative studies by Brazilian and foreign researchers, promote interaction among scientists with common or complementary interests, and create opportunities that may result in new scientific collaborations.

In the past five years, FAPESP Week has been held in cities such as Washington DC, Morgantown, Cambridge, Charlotte, Raleigh and Chapel Hill in the United States, as well as Toronto (Canada), Salamanca and Madrid (Spain), Tokyo (Japan), Beijing (China), London (UK) and Munich (Germany). So far, FAPESP Week Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Barcelona (Spain) have been held in 2015.

In London (UK) and Boston (USA), FAPESP offered research and postdoc opportunities in São Paulo to young scientists from other countries during the Naturejobs Career Expo 2014, one of the world’s largest fairs and conferences exclusively for science career opportunities, held by the Nature Publishing Group.

The results of this internationalization effort include an increase in the numbers of foreign postdoctoral researchers attracted to Brazil. They account for 17% of the scholarships awarded by FAPESP for postdoctoral work in this country.

Another result is the growing number of visits by international delegations interested in FAPESP’s funding model and possible partnerships. In 2014, FAPESP hosted delegations from Canada, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iran, Japan, the Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Innovation

FAPESP allocated $ PPP 9.17 million to its Innovative Research in Small Business (PIPE) in 2014, for an increase of 51.77% compared with the previous year. The interest of small firms in this source of funding and the quality of the proposals submitted are evidenced by 8.98% growth in the number of projects approved.

Another indicator is the number of participants in events held at FAPESP under the aegis of this program to clarify doubts about how to submit a research proposal: in 2014, more than 500 entrepreneurs and researchers with innovative ideas attended these events, called Dialogue on Supporting Small Business Research for Innovation.

FAPESP’s Research Partnership for Technological Innovation program (PITE) supports projects deriving from partnerships between researchers at institutions in São Paulo State and companies. Cooperation agreements are signed with business organizations through this program. Sixteen agreements were in force in 2014; 14 were with domestic companies, including one signed in 2014 with Biozeus Desenvolvimento de Produtos Biofarmacêuticos S.A. and two with US-based companies.

The report highlights the launch in November 2014 of the Professor Urbano Stumpf Engineering Research Center, which derives from a cooperation agreement between FAPESP and Peugeot Citroën do Brasil (PCBA) on one hand, and the University São Paulo (USP), the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), the Aeronautics Technology Institute (ITA) and the Mauá Technology Institute (IMT) on the other.

The research center’s mission is to develop internal combustion engines adapted or designed from scratch to run on biofuel and to conduct studies on biofuel sustainability.

The report also shows that FAPESP’s permanent bioenergy, biodiversity and climate change research programs have acquired benchmark status in Brazil and abroad in the field of knowledge about the sustainable expansion of biofuels and climate variability at home and worldwide, as well as of Brazilian biomes and the history of the Amazon, among other topics.

FAPESP’s 2014 Annual Report can be downloaded from www.fapesp.br/en/publications/2014report.pdf.