Priority Topic 3 – Earth and Space (EAS)

This thematic area congregates an expressive number of programs of excellence, with strong international insertion and tradition of many decades. There are 22 programs, of which half (11) received the highest score (7) in the last four-year evaluation of Capes and 5 programs received a grade 6. The consolidated competence in these programs allows to address challenges ranging from the understanding of phenomena at the subatomic scale up to scale of the universe. Of special interest are terrestrial processes that affect the balance and sustainability of our planet. In the basic and natural sciences, such as astronomy, physics, geosciences, mathematics and chemistry, there is a significant participation of USP in projects organized in vast international networks which are currently underway. The objectives in this thematic area are part of the strategic vision of internationalization of the University, seeking to consolidate and expand international leadership in areas where we already have excellence, taking advantage of themes in which Brazil arouses special interest. As an example, we mention the atmospheric sciences, which are of great relevance to studies of climate change, where research in the Amazon region is carried out with consolidated international leadership at USP. We understand that the current times offers important opportunities to attract international researchers, young talents from other nationalities, to establish themselves in Brazil. The excellence of our postgraduate programs should be expanded through increased exchange and promotion of international research and human resources training environments, with the expansion of dual degree agreements (goal of 50% increase); in recent years, there has been a great expansion in the provision of English language courses to increase the diversity of nationalities in our student body, which will be strengthened; we intend to increase agreements with our international partners to promote greater exchange in the offering of postgraduate courses, both by foreign professors at USP and by USP faculty members abroad, with the aim of increasing the international visibility of the knowledge existing here; we will develop structuring actions in the postgraduate programs that received grade 4 (four programs), in order to raise them to a level of excellence.

Projects and graduate participants programs