José Goldemberg and Eduardo Moacyr Krieger, both honorary professors of the IEA-USP, and José de Souza Martins, a frequent collaborator of the Institute, are on the list of three names that has been submitted to the São Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin in order to choose the new president of FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation).

The list was defined by the Foundation's Board on August 12. The new president will replace Celso Lafer, whose second term as president of FAPESP ends on September 7.

Goldemberg is a researcher and professor emeritus from the USP's Institute for Energy and Environment (IEE), and professor emeritus from the USP's Institute of Physics (IF). Since the establishment of the IEA-USP (during his term as president of USP), Goldemberg participates in activities related to environment, energy, sustainability and higher education. He was Secretary of Science and Technology, Secretary of the Environment and Minister of Education of the federal government, Secretary of the Environment of the State of São Paulo and president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC).

Souza Martins is professor emeritus from the USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literatures, and Human Sciences (FFLCH), institution in which he has spent all his academic career as a sociologist. He has been a frequent contributor to the IEA's journal "Estudos Avançados". At the University of Cambridge he has been a visiting researcher at the Latin American Studies Center, besides of being holder of the Simón Bolivar Chair and a researcher at the Trinty College Hall. He also taught at the University of Florida and at the University of Lisbo's Institute of Social Sciences.

Krieger is deputy president of the Superior Council of FAPESP and professor emeritus from the USP's Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine (FMRP). At the IEA-USP, he participates in discussions on science and technology policy as well as in debates about higher education and academic research. Krieger has been president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and director of the Heart Institute's Hypertension Unit at the USP's Faculty of Medicine (FMUSP).

Physicist José Goldemberg, an honorary professor of the IEA-USP, has been appointed President of FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) by State Governor Geraldo Alckmin. The nomination was published in the "Official Gazette of the State of São Paulo" on August 22. Goldemberg replaces jurist Celso Lafer, who has chaired the foundation since August 2007.

Alckmin chose Goldemberg from a list of three set by the Foundation's Board, which he heads. The list also contained sociologist José de Souza Martins, a frequent collaborator of the IEA-USP, and physiologist Eduardo Moacyr Krieger, also an honorary professor of the Institute and currently deputy president of FAPESP.

Goldemberg is a researcher and professor emeritus from the USP's Institute for Energy and Environment (IEE), and professor emeritus from the USP's Institute of Physics (IF). Since the establishment of the IEA-USP (during his term as president of USP), Goldemberg participates in activities related to environment, energy, sustainability and higher education. He was Secretary of Science and Technology, Secretary of the Environment and Minister of Education of the federal government, Secretary of the Environment of the State of São Paulo and president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC).

"Time" magazine chose Goldemberg as one of the "heroes of the environment" in 2007. In 2008 he received the Blue Planet Prize, awarded by the japanese foundation Asahi Glass to personalities with outstanding work in research and in the formulation of public policies in the environmental area. In 2013 he won the Zayed Award for Energy of the Future, granted by the United Arab Emirates to professionals focused on renewable energy. Last year he won the "Education warrior" trophy, an award given by the newspaper "O Estado de S.Paulo" and by the School-Enterprise Integration Center (CIEE).

Photo: Mauro Bellesa/IEA-USP

Writing a book that integrated the various fields of behavioral study, especially ethology and experimental psychology, into common basic language was a dream cherished for over 50 years by American ethologist Jerry Hogan, Professor Emeritus from the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto.

Hogan decided to take the opportunity to finally write the book in 2009, when the then director of the IEA, ethologist César Ades (1943-2012), invited him to present a project to be a visiting professor of the Institute. Released last November by the Cambridge University Press, 'Study of Behavior - Organization, Methods and Principles' ($ 99.99) is the result of the researcher's stay at the IEA from August 2013 to July 2015.

During a visit to São Paulo in the first week of 2018, Hogan gave an interview about the book and the various changes in the study of behavior in the last decades. The following is the edited version of the Q&A session.

IEA - Your idea of ​​writing a book relating what is common between ethology and experimental psychology arose more than 50 years ago, during your postdoc studies in the Netherlands. Since then both disciplines have been transformed and others related to them have grown, furtherly increasing the fragmentation of knowledge. In this sense, could one say that it was better to write this book now and by that be able to relate all the old and new fields of study?

Hogan - At that time, the great apparent discrepancy between ethology and experimental psychology was the idea that ethologists observe animals and their natural surroundings while psychologists observe behavior in the laboratory. In addition, ethologists are concerned with what many call instinctive behavior and psychologists look to learning. In a way, they are different, but if we think of a term of 'doctrine,' the psychologist and the ethologist are quite similar, since both try to understand how animals behave. Since then, both fields have changed dramatically. Ethology has become much more ecological and interested in different kinds of evolutionary explanations. Psychology changed from being interested in responding to the stimulus to something much more cognitive. Psychologists have understood that something happens in the brain between the stimulus and the response to it. Both original fields have become much more comprehensive and changed in many ways. One of the things I discovered is that many people felt that the old ideas were all wrong, that everything should be considered in a new way. To show that this is not true is one of the things I hope my book will do, because it is almost a historical book, which examines all the old ideas, modifies them and tries to show what is most relevant to the kind of thing people are currently doing.

IEA - The preface mentions that this is not a normal course book, because you did not seek to make a review of relevant literature, but rather a monograph with your ideas on various aspects of behavior. Either way, can the achieved result be considered as a conception of how a behavioral researcher should be trained?

Hogan - I think so. The book presents behavior as I think it can be understood better, so that everyone can think about it. I introduce other ideas and show how my ideas could be used to interpret the same kinds of data that people are talking about. When I say that it is not a literature review, I mean that I do not say 'There are these ideas about this; this is mine and this is the way to compare it with the others.' It is also not a review in the sense of presenting examples in detail. The reader can see how the experiment has been done, how the conclusion was reached. The book features relevant things, such as 'A discovered this; B, that; C, that other; this is a good experiment, these are the ideas and that is how the experiment was done.' I think it is a good book to teach people to understand behavior and to show how they can research it.

IEA - When you speak of similarities between the fields of behavioral study does it mean that they deal with the phenomena in a similar way, arriving at near conclusions? Or are the approaches complementary?

Hogan - The phenomena are the same: animals, including people, doing something. This is behavior. How to investigate it and how to interpret it. Niko Tinbergen, one of the founders of ethology, had a list of four different types of questions that can be asked: what causes behavior, how it develops, what its value for survival is, and how it evolves. Psychologists in general are not interested in value for survival or evolution. Many ethologists have become interested only in evolution and no longer in the things of behavior. In fact, if you read a British course book on ethology, you will find almost no reference to what ancient ethologists used to do, or about things that psychologists and neurophysiologists are doing. On the other hand, neurophysiologists, who are interested in memory and related topics, do not talk about how behavior evolves. They present different questions. One of the things that Tinbergen said many years ago is that one should really look at phenomena in all different ways but a psychologist might say that evolution is not relevant to the study or that it is relevant but they will not care about it. That it is not necessary.

IEA - How did your stay at the IEA and the interactions with USP's researchers contribute to the production of the book?

Hogan - I taught a psychology course at USP in 1977, when I met César Ades. We kept in touch and I was back in Brazil in 2008 and 2009. When I was here, during a lunchtime, César suggested that I came here as a visiting professor. I thought that was a good idea, but I had to have a project. As I said in the preface, I had been thinking of writing the book for 50 years. I more or less knew what I had to do to present the proposal. They accepted me and I started my book. It was a continuation of my contact with Brazilian researchers. The offered conditions were excellent, especially the fact that no one bothers you. You sit in your office and no one knocks on the door to ask you to do anything. And if you need help, you just ask someone.

IEA - What are the perspectives for the study of behavior in the upcoming decades? Can new fields of study emerge to be integrated with existing ones?

Hogan - What the book can do is bring together people from different fields, such as neurophysiology, behavioral ecology and neuropsychology, who think differently from different perspectives, and allow them to use a common language. I think this is the real importance of the book: defining a type of language to talk about cognitive psychology, rat behavior, evolution. I use a basic vocabulary that applies to all of these fields. It is not much different from what other people are doing. You have to specialize in what you are doing in the lab or in a private study, but you should be thinking about things in terms of a broad picture.

IEA - After the effort of producing the book, do you intend to start some new project linked to the study of behavior?

Hogan - I am thinking about it. I have been collaborating with other people's experimental research. They are doing lab work. I have not been in a lab in a long time. I am not really observing animals, but I collaborate in the basic discussions about the experiments. I have to say that when I wrote the book I learned a lot. The chapters deal with different areas. What struck me is that some ideas from one area are very similar to those of another and I had never thought about these relations. If I have courage, I will write about them.

Photo: Sandra Codo/IEA-USP

Related material

Videos:

History of Time and Calendar in Japan

Circadian Clock System in Peripheral Tissues of Mice

Truth and Time in Brouwer’s Intuitionism

More information:

Full programme

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http://intercontinental-academia.ubias.net

During the workshop In Search of Interdisciplinary Dialogue, sponsored by the Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS) as part of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), several experts met in Tokyo on March 14 to discuss interdisciplinarity between different kinds of knowledge.

Abe: "Japanese punctuality is not restricted to trains."

Professor Masashi Abe, from the WIAS, has addressed aspects of the Japanese calendar and the relationship of the Japanese people with time. History of Time and Calendar in Japan was the title of the lecture, which focused on how the modernization of the calendar has transformed the temporal culture in Japan, leading to one of the most punctual people in the world.

Abe said that foreigners visiting Japan get very impressed by how everything there is timely. In fact, this is true. To confirm this assumption, one just has to cite the high-speed rail network (shinkansen) between Tokyo and Osaka as an example. Despite having a territory that is usually battered by earthquakes, the transport has an average delay of 30 seconds, according to the professor.

"But punctuality is not restricted to trains. The Japanese are also very punctual. People are always anxious not to be late to their appointments. In general, they arrive 10 or 15 minutes before the scheduled time. Therefore, time regulates the life of the modern Japanese citizen. But it has not been like this forever," said Abe. By the end of the 19th century or during the Edo Period (1603-1868), many Europeans visited Japan and always complained about the Japanese being late.

There was a reason for it. Ordinary citizens had no mechanical watches. The clocks of the temples or towers had to beat 12 times a day to announce time. Time was measured by incense clocks, never by mechanical ones. This was a type of clock traditionally used in China, and then adopted by Japan and some Asian countries. It consisted of burning incense that allowed to have an idea of minutes, hours or days at a particular rate of combustion.

In the Edo Period, day and night were sectioned into six parts, with each part of the evening having a different length in relation to the day. In addition, the duration of each period of time also changed depending on the different seasons. There was no precise division of seconds and minutes. The smallest unit of time was the shihamtoki, representing a quarter of a session (tokki), or approximately 30 seconds, said Abe.

The Japanese abandoned the traditional calendar and the old time system in 1872. The week was divided into seven days and the day into 24 hours. The smallest units of time such as minutes and seconds were also introduced.

"From that, through the educational, social and military systems, the Japanese began to be taught how to be punctual. Moreover, in the Meiji Era, citizens adopted mechanical watches," the professor said.

Abe also showed a brief history of the old systems used in a more distant past. During the Kofun Period (centuries 3-7) the Chinese calendar was introduced in the country. This system was used in China since the 2nd century B.C. In 554, a Chinese expert was sent to introduce the calendar among the Japanese. In 602, the Chinese calendar was taught to children of the Japanese elite. In 604, the system was being used on a large scale, introduced by Empress Suiko (554- 628). In 660, Emperor Tenchi reached to build a water clock. But to modern times, the Chinese system prevailed.

Biological clock and the relationship with the genes

Tahara studies oscillations of the biological clock in mice via a non-invasive method.

Circadian Clock System in Peripheral Tissues of Mice was the theme of the presentation by Professor Yu Tahara, also from the WIAS. Tahara presented the results of research conducted in the laboratory led by Professor Shigenobu Shibata at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of the School of Advanced Science and Engineering at Waseda University.

Tahara studies the expression of genes in biological clocks of mice. He has established a methodology to capture in vivo images from the bioluminescence in genetically modified tissues. A special high-resolution camera captures images of different tissues and organs.

His research group has developed an imaging protocol that easily measures the biological rhythms in individual mice in a non-invasive and longitudinal way. Thus, it is possible to detect the circadian oscillations (or biological rhythm) of tissues such as kidney, liver and submaxillary gland.

"It used to be necessary to sacrifice mice after an injection of luciferin in order to remove the tissues and carry out the analysis. Now this is no longer necessary. The method also allows longitudinal studies," he said. Luciferin is the substrate of luciferase, an enzyme capable of catalyzing biological reactions, transforming chemical energy into light energy. Thus, it is possible to record images of the behavior of cells and tissues of interest.

The researcher said that he puts the mice in a dark place and injects the enzyme every four hours throughout the day. After 10 minutes of each application he takes photos of the tissue, obtaining a series of images which indicate the increase and the decrease of biomass in different regions of the body according to the lightness at which the mice are submitted.

In this study, Tahara verifies the importance of light to the biological clock, or the incidence of what he calls "entrainment". The concept relates to adjusting the biological clock phases to different environmental conditions for the organism's survival. The researcher also studies the action of insulin, caffeine, physical exercise and stress on the circadian clock. Studies of insulin are associated with fish oil administration in the diet of mice. According to him, this improves the sensitivity of the metabolic substance.

The research has shown that caffeine has a high impact on the modulation of the biological clock, according to the scientist. The administration of caffeine in the morning showed no change of the biological cycle of mice compared to the control group. But eating at night before sleeping prolonged the awake cycle, ie, caused a delayed biological clock. The scientist cited research showing that this change also occurs in humans. "Coffee has the ability to wake up and also change the circadian clock. So the message is do not drink coffee at night before bed," he joked.

The effects of food on the biological clock make up a branch of study called chrono-nutrition. According to Tahara, research on nutrition conducted so far have focused on what and how much we eat, that is, the necessary items and the proper amount of food for each meal. "But now new research tell us when to eat, that is, the right time for meals. This is the new strategy with regard to nutrition," he said.

Tahara studied the same variables taking the age factor into account. With age there was a decrease of the REM-sleep period. The results also indicate that none of those factors influenced the biological rhythm of aged mice as much as food.

Akiyoshi has spoken of the relation of mathematics to other fields of knowledge, such as philosophy.

Brouwer's Intuitionism

The philosophy of mathematics from the point of view of Dutch mathematician Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (1881-1966) was the subject presented by Professor Ryota Akiyoshi, from the WIAS.

In the lecture Truth and Time in Brouwer's Intuitionism, Akiyoshi analyzed the tension between what is mathematical truth and what is a mind construct. He explained conceptual problems on logic and philosophy, and interdisciplinary aspects.

According to the professor, the object of philosophy can be anything: language, knowledge, mathematics, physics, biology and so on. Mathematics or logic, therefore, have been a central topic in philosophy since Aristotle. With the development of language and, consequently, mathematics, philosophy of mathematics deals essentially with the origin of mathematical objects.

Platonism seeks to address this issue by showing that there is an abstract and immutable world that contains all the mathematical elements. As assumption, all mathematical objects already exist, but not all have been discovered yet. The role of the mathematician would be to find objects that have not been discovered yet in this abstract and unchanging world.

On the other hand, part of the mathematical community did not accept the ideas of Platonism and disagreed with classical mathematics. The antagonism to Plato was called constructivism, the intuitionism being the best known branch of this intellectual tradition. It was believed that a mathematical object exists from the moment when a mathematician can build it in their mind.

Professor Akiyoshi also showed some essential concepts of intuitionistic logic, including the sequence of choices and the notion of creative subject.

Time was chosen as the main theme, since its concept is usually different in each area of knowledge, whether in the humanities or in natural sciences. For a comprehensive overview of the impacts of these ideas in science and culture in general, there must be an academic dialogue among people that work with different concepts of time.

Two meetings of immersion are planned to occur in March 2015, at the University of São Paulo, and in January 2016, at the Nagoya University, besides other activities during this period.

Those interested in applying should be aged up to 40, hold a PhD or post-doctorate (completed or in progress) in any field of knowledge and be fluent in English. A letter of interest and a updated curriculum, both in English, should be sent to one of the Ubias members. The IEA-USP will receive the letters until the 7th of August, when the pre-selection process starts.

More information on the Intercontinental Academia: http://intercontinental-academia.ubias.net.

Related

• The Intercontinental Academia will bring together researchers from various countries to interdisciplinary studies on time

The network of University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS) has opened the selection process for the 4th edition of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), whose theme is "Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence." Early and mid-career researchers with a doctorate and fluency in English can apply. Applications from researchers linked to any academic institution or with links to industry, non-governmental organizations, artistic or other institutions are welcome, provided that they have a position equivalent to that of a professor or researcher.

A virtual meeting will take place in June 2021, followed by two immersion meetings - the first in October 2021, in Paris, and the second in June 2022, in Belo Horizonte. The French Network of Institutes for Advanced Study (RFIEA) and the Institute of Advanced Transdisciplinary Studies (IEAT) at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) are the hosts.

The Intercontinental Academia brings together young researchers from different countries and fields of study to study a single topic. In 2015, the IEA hosted the first phase of the program's inaugural edition, organized in partnership with the Institute for Advanced Research (IAR) at Nagoya University.

Applications
Submissions must be made through applications-ica4@rfiea.fr until March 31, 2021.

Mentors and fellows
At the meetings, selected participants will have the chance to discuss research topics with a notable group of mentors, who were previously invited to participate in this edition of the Intercontinental Academia.

Candidates affiliated to USP must undergo prior selection by the local scientific committee. If the University endorses the application and it is approved in the final selection, then USP will be responsible for supporting the participant for the immersive meetings. The sending of doubts and the complete documentation must be made through the address rkmeckien@usp.br until March 11, 2021.

CALL for fellows – Intercontinental Academia

UBIAS network
Started in 2010, the Ubias network currently congregates around 50 institutes for advanced study around the world and has the proposal to promote an environment for the exchange of experiences between researchers from different areas, cultures, and backgrounds, creating a productive space for innovative research. One of the most successful initiatives of the Ubias network is the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), in which the scientific exchange between generations, disciplines, cultures, and continents takes place around a major theme. More at www.ubias.net.

With the theme 'Time,' the edition has gathered 13 young participating researchers in two meetings that took place at the IEA-USP in April 2015 and at the University of Nagoya's Institute for Advanced Research (IAR) in March 2016. The documentary of the São Paulo phase is also available on the website. A third film that compiles both phases will also be released.

The 12-minute long video reporting the activities held in Nagoya presents testimonials of the majority of the young researchers on the importance of the interdisciplinary dialogue regarding the concepts of time. They also talk about the production of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on 'Time' as the final outcome of the initiative. The other testimonials are from Hisanori Shinohara, director of the IAR, and Martin Grossmann, director of IEA during the São Paulo phase of the project, both members of the Senior Committee of this first edition.

Editions

The Intercontinental Academia is an initiative of the University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study network (UBIAS). The partnership between the IEA and the IAR for the inauguration of the project has been sponsored by Itaú Cultural and supported by five institutions: FAPESP, CNPq, the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS) and the Center for Advanced Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. The edition also featured Coursera (where the MOOC will be available soon) as a partner.

The project is currently in the final preparations for the start of the third edition, whose theme is 'Laws: Rigidity and Dynamics,' with meetings at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in March 2018 and at the University of Birmingham's Institute for Advanced Studies in March 2019.

The second edition was entitled 'Human Dignity' and was held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Israel Institute of Advanced Studies in March 2016, and at at University of Bielefeld's Center for Interdisciplinary Research in August of the same year.

The deadline for submission of the letter of interest and an updated curriculum (in English) by those interested in participating in the Intercontinental Academia has been extended to August 31.

The project is an international and interdisciplinary initiative organized by the network University-based Institute for Advanced Study (Ubias), the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of São Paulo (IEA-USP) and the Institute for Advanced Research (IAR) of Nagoya University, Japan. The goal is to promote scientific and cultural exchange between institutions and young researchers around the world.

The theme of the Intercontinental Academia is time. This theme was chosen because it is usually conceptualized differently in each area of knowledge, whether humanities or natural sciences; and because, according to the project leaders, "to obtain a comprehensive overview of the impacts of these notions in science and culture in general there must be an academic dialogue between people working and experiencing the different concepts of time."

Two meetings of immersion are planned to occur in March 2015, at the University of São Paulo, and in January 2016, at the Nagoya University, besides other activities during this period.

See the steps to applying: intercontinental-academia.ubias.net/howwtoapply.

Related news

The Intercontinental Academia will bring together researchers from various countries to interdisciplinary studies on time

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1st International Symposium on Sustainable Aging and Planetary Health, and 1st NAPENV International Meeting on Intrinsic Capacity

Sustainable Aging is a complex process. Understanding the factors that favor or limit it is mandatory so that strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be implemented. Intrinsic capacity is one of these factors. Although it is a determinant of successful aging, the translation of this knowledge to sustainable aging and planetary health is still scarce. This symposium aims to bring together researchers from different regions of the world to promote a debate on the intrinsic capacity and health care strategy for older people in order to promote actions that contribute to achieving the SDGs and planetary health. It is linked to IEA's Sabbatical Year Program.

Registration

Free and public event | Registration required
Online event | No attendance certification will be provided
The event will be held in English and there will be no simultaneous translation into Portuguese | Live transmission at http://www.iea.usp.br/aovivo

Organization

Sabbatical Year Program (IEA-USP)
Núcleo de Pesquisas sobre o Envelhecimento e o Idoso (NAPENV)

Programme

The performance of institutes for advanced studies in Brazil as producers of research, and inter- and transdisciplinary analyses on issues of science, technology, innovation, arts, pubic policies and the future of universities is becoming increasingly significant. However, there was a lack of a better coordination between them for this catalytic role to benefit from the different experiences of each institute and the possibility of joint initiatives.

This organizational level was reached at the end of the 3rd National Meeting of Brazilian Institutes for Advanced Studies, held on August 11 and 12 in Belo Horizonte, with organization of the Institute of Transdisciplinary Advanced Studies (IEAT) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).

Joint initiatives of IASs are becoming more frequent as one can see through the existence of the University-Based Institutes for Advance Study (UBIAS) network, of which the IEA-USP is one of the founding members, and of the Réseau Français des Instituts d'Études Avancées, founded by the French government.

According to the letter written as a conclusion of the encounter and signed by the leaders to set the creation of the forum, it "aims to design and develop initiatives and programs for the integration between universities, governments, companies and social organizations through the construction of knowledge production networks based on inter- and transdisciplinarity, and on public responsibility of knowledge.” Despite of not having attended the meeting, the University of Brasília's Center of Multidisciplinary Advanced Studies (CEAM) is also a member of the forum.

Proposals

The forum has already established some goals in the short and medium terms. One of them is the execution of a project that should bring together senior and junior researchers for the interdisciplinary study of a topic to be defined.

The initiative will have as its reference the first edition of the UBIAS Intercontinental Academia, a project being developed by the IEA-USP and the University of Nagoya's Institute for Advanced Research. The first immersion period was held in April in São Paulo, while the second one will be in March, 2016, in Nagoya.

Another proposal discussed at the meeting has been presented by Francisco César de Sá-Barreto, from the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and member of the Supreme Council of CAPES: sponsoring professorships in IASs through the foundations that support research. The forum aims to add discussions with national funding agencies for a greater support to research projects of the IASs.

Participants

The meeting has been attended by Jaime Arturo Ramirez, President of the UFMG, and by the most important leaders of the main IASs based in universities of the Federal District, and of the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Pernambuco and Ceará.

The participating IASs and their representants were:

Martin Grossmann - IEA-USP

Estevam Barbosa de Las Casas - IEAT-UFMG

José Sérgio Leite Lopes - Brazilian Advanced Studies College (CBAE) - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Júlio César Hadler Neto - Forum for Strategic Thinking (PENSES) - UNICAMP

César Barreira - College of Advanced Studies (being established) - Federal University of Ceará

Paulo Henrique Martins - Institute of Latin American Studies - Federal University of Pernambuco

José Vicente Tavares dos Santos - Latin American Institute for Advanced Studies (ILEA) - Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

Alexandre Camera Varella - Mercosur Institute of Advanced Studies (IMEA) - Federal University of Latin American Integration

Fabiana Dultra Britto - Federal University of Bahia

José Vicente Tavares dos Santos has been appointed coordinator of the forum, while Estevam Barbosa de Las Casas will be deputy coordinator. The IEA-USP will be in charge of developing and implementing the forum's website.

History

The creation of the forum is the result of a process that initiated in October, 2011, in São Paulo, when the IEA-USP organized the workshop Advanced Studies and the University, a meeting that marked the first gathering of Brazilian IASs. Each institute had the chance to present its main features and lines of action.

The initiative to organize this meeting was of the then director of the IEA-USP, César Ades, who participated in the creation of the UBIAS network exactly one year before, at a meeting organized by the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University of Freiburg, Germany.

In August, 2013, in Porto Alegre, the 2nd National Meeting of Brazilian Institutes for Advanced Studies had the coordination of the ILEA-UFRGS. At this meeting (which discussed ways of cooperation between the IASs) the creation of a forum was firstly mentioned.

Profile of the forum

In recent decades Brazilian IASs have been working hard not only regarding current issues of science and culture but also in what concerns to the structural issues for society, such as political science, technology and innovation, judicial and institutional political reforms, higher education and the future of universities, public policies in health, education, sustainability, public safety, sanitation, international relations and the integration of Latin American.

Thanks to the dedication to these issues, the IASs have naturally hosted academic leaders and numerous representatives of politics, diplomacy, business, work, art and various other social sectors in their teams, projects and discussions.

To confirm that, one just has to mention the case of the IEA-USP, which currently has three of its former Board members in positions of the federal government: philosopher Renato Janine Ribeiro as Minister of Culture, biochemist Hernan Chaimovich as President of CNPq and zoologist Carlos Roberto Ferreira Brandão, President of the Brazilian Institute of Museums. Other participants of the institute have also played prominent roles in the state and federal level, such as physicist José Goldemberg (honorary professor of the IEA-USP - former dean of USP and former Minister of Education) and sociologist Glauco Arbix (creator and member of IEA-USP's Observatory for Innovation and Competitiveness - former president of Ipea and Finep).

Thus, the forum comes to live with an extremely qualified institutional profile, reflecting the competence of the members and employees of the IASs that constitute it. Certainly, this becomes an asset to articulate their demands for more support from the foundations that support research and federal funding agencies for the studies that the IASs have.

Deputy Sibá Machado, rapporteur of the project that gave rise to the Innovation Law

This is the Brazilian reality because "we are very poor in terms of patents," said Helena Nader, president of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), one of the exhibitors at the seminar The New Innovation Law: Expectations, Perspectives and Initiatives, held on April 4 at the USP's Faculty of Economics, Management and Accounting (FEA).

The poor performance in patents is an indicator of the country's difficulties in producing innovation, an activity surrounded by legal, institutional, financial and even cultural impediments.

"Brazil has 20% of the world's biodiversity but an archaic legislation on the issue. In the last 10 years we have only allowed 300 researches in this area. The result is that companies prefer to patent their products abroad." The example was given by Paulo Mól, national superintendent of the Euvaldo Lodi Institute (IEL) of the National Industry Confederation (CNI) and coordinator of the Business Mobilization for Innovation (MEI).

Legal advancement

While there is still much to be done, the spirit of the actors involved in science, technology and innovation in Brazil is renewed. This is a result of the new legal framework established for the sector in recent years.

Helena Nader: a perspective of the scientific community

The most recent achievement was the adoption of a constitutional amendment (Emenda Constitucional nº 85 - in Portuguese), amending and adding devices in the Federal Constitution to update the treatment of activities in science, technology and innovation. The amendment has led to the final law project presented by various members of the Parliament in 2011 and resulted in the new innovation law, enacted on January 11 by President Dilma Rousseff.

The new law provides for incentives to scientific development, research, scientific and technological capacity, and innovation. It also amends various legal provisions.

In addition to the law and the constitutional amendment, deputy Sibá Machado also addressed a set of legal texts from which science, technology and innovation benefit, and which deals with the supporting foundations; a law on the access to biodiversity; a provisional measure on the imports by supporting foundations; and a proposed constitutional amendment that regulates professional and graduation courses.

Vahan Agopyan, vice-president of USP, and Guilherme Ary Plonski (left) during the opening of the seminar

Machado was the rapporteur of the project that gave rise to the law. He said that the idea of establishing a National Code of Science, Technology and Innovation was dropped because something like that would head the standards to a relatively inflexible way, which would be inappropriate for an area in constant transformation.

One of the great achievements of the process that led to the new legislation was the fact that it is the result of consensus among the scientific community, companies, the Brazilian congress and the government (including the effort for the overthrow of vetoes), according to the speakers at the seminar.

At the opening of the seminar, Professor Guilherme Ary Plonski, organizer of the event and scientific coordinator of the USP's Center for Policy and Technology Management (PGT), said that the five-year work that resulted in the constitutional amendment and in the Innovation Law has involved 53 academic, entrepreneurial and government institutions, 19 of them taking a more active role.

Maria Paula Dallari Bucci: initiatives for effectiveness

USP's vice-president Vahan Agopyan cited the problem of legal uncertainty, which hinders many companies to invest in innovation. According to him, a 2010 survey indicated that only 0.25% of the companies in the State of São Paulo able to invest in innovation had the courage to use the Law of Innovation. FEA's deputy director, Joaquim José Martins Guilhoto, highlighted the national and regional impact of the new law. The opening of the seminar has also been attended by the University's provost for research, José Eduardo Krieger, who has moderated the seminar.

Regulation

According to the exhibitors, the immediate steps are the overthrow of the eight partial vetoes and the regulation of the new law, whose proposal will be drawn up by a working group of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), and submitted to public consultation.

The regulation will be a crucial stage in the process in order to resolve doubts and disagreements, and again try to reach a consensus. At the seminar, it was up to the USP's legal superintendent, Maria Paula Dallari Bucci, a professor at the University's Law School, to detail the legal aspects involved in the new legislation and the precautions to be taken in its implementation. Bucci took the point of view of the public sector, giving special attention to the peculiarities of the State of São Paulo.

Paulo Mól: perspective of the business community

For her, instead of talking about regulation, one must speak of "regulations for specific points." The first priority, she said, is to define a legal concept that gives support to the managing entity of technology parks and incubators. She recalled that the qualification of private law's legal entities as social organizations whose activities are directed to science, technology and innovation is allowed, but by law the government of the State of São Paulo is not. This prohibition places the future of many São Paulo institutions at risk, according to the professor.

Further topics that have been discussed: the need to set limits to the possibility of researchers in exclusive dedication to participate in paid private projects so that there is no prejudice to their teaching and research activities; the clarification of how the support of foundations can manage their own revenues from science and technology public institutions; and how to deal with the issue of reciprocity in the case of incentives for foreign companies to settle research and development centers in Brazil.

For Bucci, one amendment inserted by the new law is a setback: the repeal of the Innovation Law devices that dealt explicitly with consolidated information that should be annually passed on by the science and technology institutions to the MCTI (intellectual property policy, developed creations; required and granted protection, and licensing agreements or technology transfer signed).

The event has been a partnership between the USP's Dean of Research, the IEA, the USP's Center for Policy and Technology Management (PGT), based on FEA, and the Centre for Research Innovation and Competitiveness Observatory (NAP- OIC), based on the IEA.

The restructuring of the UBIAS network's governance during the 4th Directors' Meeting, held in Birmingham between June 20 and 22, led the IEA-USP's deputy director Professor Guilherme Ary Plonski to take over a position of deputy coordinator. It has also been decided that São Paulo will host the fifth edition of the meeting. According to Plonski, a professor of the business and engineering schools at USP, the event will take place in the first semester of 2018.

"The meeting in Birmingham has brought important prospects on the future of the network, including the restructuring of its governance. A debate has raised topics that concern us directly, such as research funding from the EU, interdisciplinarity linking science and art, gender issues in the academic environment and others," Plonski said.

The UBIAS network has now two deputy coordinators, represented by the Freiburg University's Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and by the IEA-USP. The coordinator is Professor Morten Kyndrup, from the Danish Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS).

Formed in 2010, the UBIAS network brings together 34 institutes based on universities from around the world, and discusses the production of knowledge and conducts joint scientific activities with the presence of prominent researchers. The Intercontinental Academia (ICA), one of its leading programs, provides scientific exchange between generations, disciplines, cultures and continents, especially for young scientists aged between 30 and 40.

Professor Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA-USP, gave an overview of the ICA on a panel on June 20. The same session has been attended by researchers Valtteri Arstila and Vanessa Hellmann, both participants of the project, who joined the discussion on results and future prospects. Two editions of the ICA have already been developed, the first one on the subject "Time" and the second one on "Human Dignity". The content of the research on "Time", on which the participants have been working since the meeting in São Paulo, will support the creation of a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), to be available for free on the Coursera platform.

Methodologies to assess the work of the ICA, privacy, and new social and international media have been some of the further issues discussed by the directors.

Proposed and organized by the Institute of Advance Studies of the University of Birmingham, the directors' meeting has been planned in order to share experiences, promote cultural and scientific exchanges, and articulate inter-institutional partnerships.

The candidates have been chosen by the Institute's Board after consulting the IEA's Research Committee. The program members will have the support of the Dean for Research, which will allocate specific funding for each approved project.

The researchers and their research projects are:

Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo - "Ontology and epistemology of an (inter)discipline: Archaeology as a Paradigm of Interdisciplinarity and its Theoretical and Practical Implications";

Dária Gorete Jaremtchuk - "Artistic exile: Movement of Brazilian Artists to New York during the 1960s and 1970s";

Flavio Ulhoa Coelho - "History of Algebraic Thinking and its Didactic Splits";

Lucia Maciel Barbosa de Oliveira - "Contemporary Cultural Dynamics: Overlapping of Singularities, Collectives, Technologies and Cultural Institutions in the Common Perspective";

Maria de los Angeles Gasalla - "Future of marine-dependent societies: climate change, innequalities and cooperation in complex socio-ecological systems";

Rodolfo Nogueira Coelho de Souza - "Invention of an Opera: Pascal's machine in Pernaguá".

The program

The selected professors will conduct research at the IEA only, getting relieved of their activities, including teaching, at the unit or organ to which they are linked. Every professor in the exercise of a sabbatical year will have the following duties: to conduct at least one public lecture per semester and to produce a new and original paper or other outcome (book or work of art, for example). In the case of producing a paper, this will be published in the journal "Estudos Avançados" and / or the IEA website.

The next selection process should take place in the second half of 2016. Applicants should submit projects related to and / or referenced by the four meta-curatorships (Commons, Transformation, Glocal and Abstraction) that were established in 2012 by the Institutional Project. They must also show proof that their participation in the program has been approved by the department council - or equivalent - and by the congregation or their unit or organ of origin.