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Science Programs

Among the initiative's activities are support for researchers developing disruptive projects and the funding of frontier research, including through partnerships with scientific institutions in Brazil and abroad.

Open Calls

Through its support of science, Pioneer Science seeks to identify and support outstanding researchers working in frontier fields by providing grants, scholarships, infrastructure, and relocation resources when necessary.

Discretionary Projects

Pioneer Science maintains in its portfolio discretionary projects focused on interdisciplinary areas with bold objectives, which often have limited space in conventional funding models.

  • Neurophysiology

    This area investigates the neural mechanisms underlying perception, cognition, and behavior, focusing on the functional dynamics of brain networks across different scales.
  • Advanced Therapies

    The Advanced Therapies front brings together projects that explore innovative approaches to develop new therapeutic strategies, focused on complex and difficult-to-treat diseases.
  • Cellular Neurobiology

    This area brings together projects investigating, at different levels of complexity, the fundamental mechanisms that sustain the function, plasticity, and degeneration of the nervous system.
  • Quantum Biology Community

    Pioneer Science has been actively investing in science communication and in building a quantum biology research community in Brazil.
  • Neuroscience of Values and Beliefs

    This transdisciplinary research program investigates how the brain and human psychology form, maintain, and represent values and beliefs, exploring cognitive, social, philosophical, and spiritual dimensions.
  • Neurophysics

    Innovative research exploring the limits of the interaction between physics and neuroscience, carried out at four hubs: IDOR (RJ and SP), UFRJ, and UFMG.

Advanced Training

Building partnerships with leading research groups around the world enables researchers to experience firsthand what drives the expansion of science, deepen their knowledge, and integrate that development into the Brazilian context when they return home.

  • Northwestern

    The partnership is structured around collaboration with the lab led by Jordan Grafman at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (SRALab), an international reference in cognitive neuroscience and rehabilitation.
  • Weizmann Institute of Science

    The Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) is one of the world's leading multidisciplinary basic research institutions in the natural and exact sciences.
  • Usona Institute and Promega

    The Usona Institute, founded by Promega, is a non-profit organization dedicated to studying psychedelics for the treatment of mental health disorders.
  • Sarafan ChEM-H (Stanford University)

    Sarafan ChEM-H is an innovation center at Stanford University built for the future of research, bridging Chemistry, Engineering, Biology, and Medicine to understand life at the molecular level and improve...
  • Innovative Genomics Institute

    IGI is a center of excellence dedicated to developing and applying gene-editing techniques to address major challenges facing humanity.