Engineering Research Centers

FAPESP and São Martinho Group have issued a call for proposals to establish an Engineering Research Center (ERC) that will conduct internationally competitive research on sustainable action to control sugarcane pests and diseases.

The scope of the ERC encompasses research on primary, secondary and emerging pests and diseases. The following research lines are envisaged:

1) Mass creation and automation of mass production of parasitoids, predators and pathogens used to control sugarcane pests and diseases with the aim of reducing production cost.

2) Pathogen production processes and formulation.

3) Alternatives for control of emerging (or consolidated) crop pests and diseases, such as Sphenophorus levis and anthracnose, or livestock pests such as Stomoxys calcitrans (stable fly).

4) Studies of plant growth promoters (fungi and mycorrhizas).

The ERC’s activities will receive funding for a five-year period, renewable for another five years.

The Center will enjoy a high degree of autonomy in using its budget. In exchange, FAPESP and São Martinho Group will permanently monitor its activities and perform regular evaluations.

The premise on which an ERC is based and that orients its activities is the execution of internationally competitive research in accordance with global excellence benchmarks.

A key driver of success for an ERC is the existence of a team whose composition balances principal investigators, senior researchers, visiting researchers, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, and technical support personnel, backed by first-class administrative and management services.

The ERC’s size, structure and modus operandi must be determined in accordance with the research, dissemination and knowledge transfer activities to be executed. In particular, the Center must be operated by a host institution. Partnerships with other institutions in São Paulo State will be seen as a factor that valorizes the proposal and may be essential to make the proposal more robust.

With this call, FAPESP adapted its successful programs for Research, Innovation & Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) and Research Partnership for Technological Innovation (PITE) to permit the funding of an ERC by a partner firm motivated to use the results of the Center’s research.

Proposals for the new ERC will be received until December 4, 2017.

The call for proposals is published at: www.fapesp.br/11188.