The Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Innovation (RCGI) is a research centre based at the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. Its mission is to contribute to Brazil and the world in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions through disruptive scientific research in the field of energy transition. The RCGI headquarters are located at USP, and it recently established an institutional presence in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

RCGI’s research activities are organized into thematic programs: Natural Based Solutions (NBS), Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU), Bioenergy, Carbon Capture and Storage – (BE)CCS, Greenhouse Gases (GHG), Advocacy, Power Systems Innovation Hub – InnovaPower, Decarbonisation and Centre-to-Centre Collaborations.

More information is available on the Programmes and Projects page.

RCGI currently has 59 active projects, distributed across the aforementioned programs.

A complete list is available on the Programmes and Projects page.

The Energy Transition Research & Innovation Conference (ETRI) is RCGI’s annual scientific conference.

Traditionally held at the end of the year, the 2025 edition will take place from November 4 to 6 at the CDI and DigitalLab buildings on the University of São Paulo campus.

The event brings together the scientific community, industry representatives, policymakers, and civil society to discuss advances, challenges, and solutions in the field of energy transition.

Since 2023, ETRI has been open to the general public, including universities outside USP and private-sector participants.

More details are available on the ETRI 2025 page.

Please send an email to eventos.rcgi@usp.br, explaining the purpose of the request. Our team will review the request, assess availability, and propose a suitable date and time if approved.

Currently, the DigitalLab is available for pre-scheduled visits only. It is not yet open to the general public during regular hours, although initiatives are underway to expand public access in the near future.

Please send an email to communication.rcgi@usp.br.

All open opportunities are listed in the Opportunities section. The top of the page lists active openings; the bottom lists closed ones.

Each posted position includes a specific public notice outlining the required qualifications and application process.

For further questions, contact rcgi.opportunities@usp.br.

At this time, RCGI courses and workshops are free of charge but exclusively for researchers affiliated with the centre.

Please send the publication details to communication.rcgi@usp.br.

RCGI was established in 2016 with support from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Shell, and the University of São Paulo, through the clause established by the Brazilian National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), via R&D levy regulation.

Over the years, additional partnerships were established. Today, in addition to its founding sponsors, RCGI receives funding from TotalEnergies, Petronas, Petrobras, Braskem, Repsol Sinopec Brasil, Eneva, Toyota, Hyundai, Marcopolo, EMTU, GWM, and SRI.

Institutions interested in establishing a partnership with RCGI should send an email to communication.rcgi@usp.br, formalizing the proposal, justifying the interest, and providing relevant documentation that demonstrates alignment between the parties.

The proposal will be reviewed internally, and, if there is mutual interest, the parties will proceed to ideation meetings aimed at structuring and formalizing collaborative research projects.