This Friday (2), the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will carry out two agendas in the city of São Bernardo do Campo, in Greater São Paulo. In the first of them, which marks the resumption of investments by the federal government in Brazilian higher education, Lula will participate in the inauguration of a new building at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), which will house the Zeta block of laboratories. On the second agenda, Lula will inaugurate the new building of Eletra Tecnologia de Tração Elétrica, a leading company in sustainable public transport. The UFABC Zeta block is a building that was created on the campus of São Bernardo and will house 22 laboratories for scientific research and technological innovation in the most diverse areas such as genetics, energy development and medical equipment. There is a laboratory, for example, for the development of innovations in complex heart diseases. “What we do is work with a disease called atrial fibrillation. The world’s problem today is that the equipment that guides doctors to cauterize the cells inside the heart to stop this arrhythmia is based on traditional techniques, not leading to the complexity of atrial fibrillation. In complex cases, where the person already has this more evolved disease, they [médicos] they burn, burn, burn and cannot stop the arrhythmia”, explains professor João Salinet, laboratory coordinator. “This is a chronic disease, which affects between 1% and 2% of the world’s population and, for those who are older, it affects up to 20% of the world’s population. The treatment is expensive”, explained the specialist. “Our objective here is to develop the first system for the SUS and that can be exported to other countries, with a cost that fits in our pockets”, added Salinet. The block that houses this laboratory covers 5,800 square meters and also has 12 laboratories for scientific initiation, as well as classrooms for graduate students. The construction of the new block was financed by the federal government, through the UFABC budget, the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (Finep) and parliamentary amendments, in addition to individual resources from federal deputies. The total investment amount was R$ 28.5 million. “We are handing over this building. This is not yet the end of campus consolidation. We still have some other works to be built here. And we hope to see this in the investment plan for the next period”, said Dácio Matheus, dean of the university, in a press conference held this afternoon (1st) at the headquarters of the São Bernardo do Campo campus. In the interview, the dean said that he intends to take advantage of the president’s visit to talk about other demands of the university, such as the construction of a multi-sports center or a common area for students; the construction of a campus access to the Anchieta Highway; the construction of a cultural block on the Santo André campus; and the construction of a walkway connecting two blocks on the Santo André campus, which would provide access to a multimodal terminal. “These projects have been stopped. We already have the executive project, we already have the conditions for the bidding. We just don’t have the resources yet guaranteed for that”, he said. Paralyzed projects According to Denise Pires, Secretary of Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, there are currently more than 400 projects related to higher education paralyzed across the country for lack of resources or investments, ten of which are at UFABC. “Unfortunately, we have a huge number of works at a standstill due to the lack of investment by the federal government in recent years. In 2015, more than BRL 1 billion was allocated to the entire set of federal universities. In 2019, these resources dropped to BRL 550 million. And, the following year, the dean no longer had any resources to invest in works and made a great effort [para não paralisá-las]. For this reason, I thank the parliamentarians who helped these institutions not to completely paralyze the works because all the investment would have been lost”, said the secretary. “We are going to inaugurate a building [na UFABC] who did not have his work paralyzed by the efforts of the rectory. And this is true for the entire federal network, ”she added. According to the secretary, in 2023 the Ministry of Education is working to recompose the investment budget in higher education for the resumption or completion of works in which there are few resources. “That year, we were not even able to reach R$ 550 million [de orçamento] de 2019. But our intention is to have enough investments again so that all the works are completed and we can expand the federal system even further”, says Denise. “The amount of resources is high, but we will put it in the budget proposal for 2024. We have been working with Parliament so that the budget of the Ministry of Education is recomposed”. According to the secretary, the MEC currently has a total budget that does not reach half of what was available a decade ago. “It is not possible for us to continue like this. Brazil today is far from having a quality education and a quality education depends on investment. develop. We don’t have to look at the amount of resources, but the resource per capita, per student. And this resource per student is very low in relation to other countries in the world”, he concluded. Currently, UFABC is formed by about 20 thousand people, including students, professors and civil servants, and offers 29 undergraduate courses and 29 graduate programs. Eletra The president’s second agenda in São Bernardo do Campo will be at Eletra, a leading company in sustainable public transport. There, he will participate in the inauguration of a new building, measuring 27,000 square meters, located on Via Anchieta, with the capacity to produce 150 electric buses per month or up to 1,800 per year. .
Agência Brasil
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