Infrastructure for research at the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA / USP) - Year 2021

• Grant number: 21/13891-7
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Technical Reserve for Institutional Research Infrastructure
• Duration: March 01, 2022 - February 28, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Nuclear Engineering - Applications of Radioisotopes
• Principal Investigator: Ernani Pinto Junior
• Grantee: Ernani Pinto Junior
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

n December 2020, CENA/USP, the Specialized Institute and Integration Agency of the University of São Paulo, had its own body of 32 Faculty, divided into three Scientific Divisions. Regarding RDIDP professors, there are 9 Full Professors (28.1%), 12 Associate Professors (37.5%) and 11 PhD Professors (34.4%), located in three Scientific Divisions. Among the Associate Professors, 11 obtained the title of Full Professor for more than 5 years and 7 are MS 5.3 Professors. These Professors demonstrate excellence in university activities, highlighting the training of qualified human resources, as well as scientific production in renowned national and international journals, with a high impact rate. The high scientific productivity of CENA's Faculty can also be proven by the high number of CNPq Productivity Scholarships: of the current 32 professors, 23 are scholarship holders (71.9% of the staff), with 16 in category 1 (69.6 %), including 5 in category 1A. Other performance indicators in research that deserve to be highlighted are the number of active CENA Professors who are members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, 4 (12.5% of the faculty). CENA, which in 2021 completed 55 years of its creation, became the largest Specialized Institute of the University of São Paulo, becoming an academic center of international excellence in the development of research in the agricultural and environmental areas, using nuclear techniques , its scope still applies to other fields of science, also acting in the areas of applied environmental and social sciences, presenting an important participation in the main activities of the University of São Paulo. Although CENA is classified as a Specialized Institute, teaching activities (Graduate - ESALQ/USP courses and two CAPES Level 7 Graduate Programs), research (excellence) and extension, can perfectly qualify CENA as a Teaching, Research and Extension Unit. With regard to undergraduate education, although CENA is not a Full Unit, from 2001 onwards, there has been a significant increase in the participation of CENA Professors who, in 2020, offered a total of 34 subjects. CENA participates in thematic networks with the development of ten (10) Thematic Projects (FAPESP - Resources in the order of R$ 19 million reais), in the last seven years. In 2020, CENA's Faculty/Researchers and Executive Board maintained 50 research and infrastructure projects (19 FAPESP, 8 CNPq, 2 CAPES/PROEX, 13 FEALQ, 4 IAEA, 2 Embrapa, 1 PRP/USP and 1 company) and 195 scholarships with funds obtained from various development agencies and private initiative and from the institution itself (FAPESP, CNPq, CAPES, FEALQ, FUSP, IAEA, CENA, others), totaling R$ 7,792,191.02. The 393 research papers that highlight the activities of CENA professors from 2019 to 2020 are distributed by SCOPUS in the areas of Agriculture and Biological Sciences (34%), Environmental Sciences (16%), Chemistry (11%), Biochemistry , Genetics and Molecular Biology (9%) and Earth Sciences (6%), in addition to other internationally renowned journals indexed in important databases, which correspond to the objectives of the Scientific Divisions of CENA/USP. Regarding FAPESP's Institutional Technical Reserve, it was approved at the 2nd ordinary meeting of the Deliberative Council of CENA, held on 27/04/2021, which the application, as a priority, must support projects involving: 300 KVa generator to support, in a way permanent, the power network for strategic research laboratories; expansion of the data storage system for the institution's research; webcam cameras for interaction between the institution's researchers internally and with other researchers from Brazil and the world, and important infrastructure improvements for research activities that can be carried out remotely. (AU)