GLOPID-R

GloPID-R member

São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

About the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public foundation funded by the taxpayer in the State of São Paulo.The Foundation’s aim is to support research projects in higher education and research institutions, in all fields of knowledge. The São Paulo State constitution stipulates that 1% of all state taxes must go to the Foundation and the government transfers these funds monthly. Thanks to the stablility of funding and the Foundation’s autonomy, resources are managed efficiently and make a significant impact.

The Foundation works in close contact with the scientific community. All proposals are peer reviewed by local expert panels composed of active researchers.
The Foundation also supports large research programs in areas such as health sciences, biodiversity, bioenergy, global climate change, and e-Science.

 

In his own words

“For FAPESP, being part of the GloPID-R network is extremely important so that we can be aligned with other funders in the effort to prepare and respond to infectious diseases with pandemic and epidemic potential. Working in a network, sharing data and experience, is the best way to provide an adequate and efficient response. FAPESP is committed to bringing solutions to diverse health challenges in our community through scientific research and innovation.”

Reinaldo Salomão
Professor and Director, Sepsis Research Laboratory
EPM/Unifesp, Division of Infectious Diseases,
Senior Scientific Advisor
São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP

Our Work

Program for supporting collaborative research between universities, research institutions and businesses

  • Research Partnership for Technological Innovation (PITE FAPESP): one of the first programs implemented in Brazil to foster research in universities and research institutions in collaboration with businesses, based on joint funding from FAPESP and partner companies.
  • Engineering Research Centers (ERC) and Applied Research Centers (ARC): support long-term research projects, in which a partner (a business or government entity) co-funds the research and is, therefore, strongly motivated to help define the topics to be investigated, to play an active role in research projects, and to make use of the results obtained by the research center.

 

FAPESP finances a wide range of research projects on infectious diseases with pandemic and epidemic potential. Here are some current examples:

  • Influence of previous exposure to Zika Virus on acute dengue infection: epidemiological, clinical, immunological, and virological aspects
    Considering the current epidemiological context of arboviruses in the Brazil, this study aims to evaluate the influence of antibodies produced against a previous Zika infection in the clinical evolution of dengue, during the last epidemic, which occurred in 2019. To this end, it will evaluate whether the presence of anti-Zika IgG antibodies resulting from a previous infection is a risk predictor for severe forms of dengue (dengue with warning signs and severe dengue) and hospitalization.
  • Immunization with recombinant BCG expressing epitopes from SARS-CoV-2 spike and nuceloprotein protects against infection in hACE-2 murine model
    This project aims to investigate the protective mechanisms involved and also to assess if the vaccine protects against SARS-CoV-2 variants. These data will not only contribute to the field of vaccines against COVID-19, but will also serve as a basis for promoting the study of rBCG platforms against other infectious agents.
  • Development of vaccines based on recombinant BCG: Tuberculosis, Pertussis, Pneumococcus and Schistosoma
    The project aims to expand the use of methods of heterologous gene expression in BCG developed in the laboratory with the objective of developing new pertussis, tuberculosis, pneumococcal and schistosoma vaccines, and to improve the immunotherapeutic treatment of bladder cancer.
  • CTC – Center for Cell-Based Therapy
    The project proposes a program of basic and clinical research to isolate, culture, and characterize embryonic, somatic, and neoplastic stem cells in order to understand their biology and apply this knowledge to therapy, comprising four research lines:

    • Pluripotent stem cells (SC) (embryonic SC and induced pluripotent SC);
    • Somatic SC (hematopoietic SC, mesenchymal SC, endothelial SC, and cancer SC);
    • General mechanisms involved in maintaining “stemness”; and
    • Clinical SC applications

This research plan is firmly grounded in the analysis of mechanisms and pathways of normal and abnormal stem cells to serve as targets or to help manipulate cells for therapy. The research team includes specialists in cell and molecular biology, embryology, genomics, bioinformatics, veterinary medicine, hematology, and oncology. The technology transfer plan involves cooperation with the private sector and with the government, the education of a new generation of scientists and technicians, and the direct transfer of high quality services to the public. The education plan is focused mainly in a long-term relationship of teachers and middle-school students with the center, researchers, and PhD students.

In the Rapid Implementation Supplements for COVID-19 call, researchers redirected resources from their grants towards topics related to COVID-19 and were approved for funding and postdoctoral fellowships under the Rapid Implementation Supplement to Regular Grants (APR-SRI).

Projects selected in the Rapid Implementation Supplements for COVID-19 call.

  • The Research Grant for the Development of Technologies for Products, Services, and Processes to Combat COVID-19 was launched by FAPESP in partnership with Finep (Finep Innovation and Research – a public company linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation).The aim was to support micro- and small companies and startups willing to apply or scale innovative processes or products related to the disease. The call offered a special funding line of R$20 million within the PIPE-PAPPE Subsidy Program.


Projects selected in the Technologies for Combating COVID-19 call.

In addition, FAPESP has launched the COVID-19 Data Sharing/BR, Brazil’s first open data repository containing demographic data and clinical and laboratory test results from patients tested for COVID-19 in laboratory units across the country and hospitals in the State of São Paulo.

The repository hosts opened and anonymized data initially from more than 177,000 patients, 9,634 outcome data, and a total of nearly 5 million clinical and laboratory test results from across the country by the Fleury Group and in the city of São Paulo by the Israelita Albert Einstein and Sírio-Libanês hospitals since November 2019.

The database is the result of an initiative by FAPESP in partnership with the University of São Paulo (USP) and aims to share anonymized clinical information from patients to support scientific research on the disease in various fields of knowledge.

FAPESP maintains cooperation agreements with national and international research funding agencies, higher educational and research institutions and businesses. International cooperation covers a broad range of countries and agencies.

FAPESP offers many programs to support foreign scientists willing to work in research institutions in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. These include: post-doctoral fellowships, young investigator awards and visiting researcher grants.

Did you know?

In 2022:

  • FAPESP invested over R$1 billion (approximately US$ 200M) in funding for 20,709 ongoing research projects
  • With similar numbers of projects submitted for review, FAPESP’s funding for research increased by 16.7% compared to 2021
  • The number of contracted projects during the period grew by 27.8%
  • Under FAPESP’s Research for Advancing Knowledge strategy, noteworthy investments (53% of funding) include large-scale basic and applied research projects: Thematic Projects, Young Researchers and Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers
  • Initiatives to expand opportunities for young researchers include: the Generation Project and Initial Project, and the extension of the Young Researcher Fellowship from 48 to 60 months
  • Funding for all forms of Human Resources Formation in Science and Technology grew by over 20%

EU Flag

The GloPID-R Secretariat is a project which receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101094188.