R$ 159 million in research equipment

FAPESP approves purchase of around 250 pieces of multiuser equipment for laboratories in São Paulo State, placing them on par with the world’s most modern

Agência FAPESP – FAPESP approved a R$ 159 million investment for the purchase of some 250 pieces of multiuser equipment for scientific research. The announcement was made on May 23 at the opening ceremony of celebrations for the Foundation’s 50th anniversary. 

The acquisition of the equipment improves and updates laboratories in São Paulo higher education and research institutions, placing them on par with the world’s most modern.

FAPESP received 222 proposals from researchers responsible for research projects already funded by the foundation in response to a call for proposals under the Multiuse Equipment Program (MEP) released at the end of 2009. Some 118 were approved for purchase of equipment, mostly imported with price tags of over R$ 100,000.

The report on the instruments with georeferenced data on their location in the state is available at www.fapesp.br/emu. The online publication affords a mechanism for broader utilization of the equipment in scientific and technological research performed by researchers in Brazil, Latin America and other nations as well.

The website shows the distribution of the approved equipment on a map of the state of São Paulo through Google Maps. A search can be done by name of the instrument, by research institution or by the name of the responsible researcher. The site shows a list of all the associated and adjunct research projects benefitted by the instruments. Use will not, however, be limited to them.

Interested researchers can schedule time to use the equipment online, by following links to pages with instructions for use of each instrument. The pages are prepared by researchers responsible for the funded project.

The instruments will mostly be installed at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), the Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), Embrapa Environmental, the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp), the Luz Síncrotron National Laboratory (LNLS) and the Ludwig Cancer Research Institute. Areas benefitting from the funding range from medicine to communications, with physics, engineering, biology, dentistry, veterinary medicine and zootechny and the agrarian sciences, among others, in between.

The Multiuse Equipment Program’s call for proposals led to the creation of 18 Multiuser Center facilities and the modernization of 13 existing ones, all of which managed by committees to control quality of services at the different institutions.

Some of these centers are on the USP campus in Ribeirão Preto to support health sciences projects; modern electron microscopes useful in chemistry are installed at UFSCAR; and at LNLS, magnetic resonance imaging equipment will be used for research in chemistry and physics.

The field of Astronomy will have a huge boost with the acquisition of a robotic telescope, a cluster of computers and image detectors by the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at USP (IAG/USP). For each project approved, FAPESP required commitments from the hosting institutions for maintenance to keep the equipment running perfectly—staff to operate it, infrastructure and installation, maintenance, guarantees and insurance.

The list of equipment includes six high performance DNA sequencers, 9 medium sized sequencers, six nuclear magnetic resonance machines, 8 mass spectrometry machines, 7 electron microscopes and 7 confocal microscopes.

FAPESP has invested progressively in the creation and maintenance of the São Paulo State Research Equipment Park, considered the most modern in Latin America—through an incentive policy that reflects on the quality and visibility of scientific and technological production in the state.

With this infrastructure support, São Paulo researchers produce 52% of all scientific articles published in Brazil and 48% of the nation’s PhDs come from here—30% of which in research areas.

Financing is made through the Research Infrastructure Support Program, which invested R$ 154 million over the last three years and invests resources in FAP-Books for the acquisition of books, periodicals and e-books for libraries at research institutes, in the Technical Reserve for Institutional Research Infrastructure for maintenance of internet connection for the São Paulo academic network (Rede ANSP), and in coordination of research programs and other research infrastructure bolstering programs in the state of São Paulo.

The Multiuser Equipment Program allows for the purchase of expensive materials equal to those used in the world’s foremost research centers, for shared and continued use by groups of researchers with considerable experience.

The program also finances costs for installation, including materials and services, and allows for revenues to be raised at the institutions for maintenance.