Annual Plan for Using the Institucional Technical Reserve 2024 for Research Support at FZEA/USP

• Grant number: 24/18120-7
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Technical Reserve for Institutional Research Infrastructure
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Augusto Fernandes de Oliveira
• Grantee: Carlos Augusto Fernandes de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The School of Animal Science and Food Engineering (FZEA/USP) has maintained a history of growth and consolidation in its research activities since its foundation in 1992, especially after the implementation of the undergraduate courses in Veterinary Medicine and Biosystems Engineering in 2011, which, added to the Animal Science and Food Engineering courses (day and night shifts), totalling nowadays 1,257 undergraduate students at FFZEA/USP. During this period, there was also a significant expansion of postgraduate activities, which currently has 300 students enrolled in four postgraduate programs at FZEA/USP. This notable development enabled a significant increase in the number of researchers at FZEA/USP, which currently has 107 faculty members and 52 postdoctoral students distributed across five Departments located at the Pirassununga Campus. This growth certainly resulted in a significant increase in the research activities and the resulting scientific production, but it also generated several demands for adaptations to the research infrastructure available at the Unit, to support faculty in the development of their research projects. FZEA/USP, through its faculty and researchers, has also presented an excellent track record of raising funds from FAPESP for research activities in the form of Research Grants - Regular Project and Thematic Project, in addition to another significant portion of scholarships. In particular, in 2023, two Thematic Projects were approved which, in addition to the Regular Grant resources, resulted in the raising of a significant amount of RTI for execution in the current year. It is therefore necessary to guarantee the faculty who are developing these projects the minimum necessary infrastructure conditions. In this context, this investment proposal with RTI/FAPESP resources was planned to support the infrastructure demands of research laboratories in three areas, namely: a) Required adjustments in laboratories coordinated by researchers awarded FAPESP grants (and which generated the current RTI), for the development of their respective research projects supported by FAPESP; b) Investments in FZEA multi-user centers, to expand or maintain the provision of services to serve all users of the Unit and also external users in their research activities; c) required adjustments in laboratories that meet the analytical demands of different teams of FZEA researchers. In all these areas, the items requested are intended to perform services to improve environmental conditions and enhance the organization of laboratories, acquire equipment to expand the available analytical park, perform maintenance or repairs of equipment and, finally, acquire certain supplies that make it possible to expand the provision of analytical services in the recently implemented FZEA Multi-User Analytical Center. In this way, the execution of this Annual RTI Application Plan will allow significant progress in the consolidation of the research infrastructure available at FZEA, aiming to benefit all research groups at the Unit. (AU)