The Graduate Program in Health Sciences and Technologies of Faculdade de Ceilândia (PPGCTS) has received grade 4 (good grade) from area 45 - Interdisciplinary of Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel), linked with the Ministry of Education (MEC).
The PPGCTS was created in 2010 to provide master’s and PhD’s programs for researchers of the institution. The Program consists of two research areas. Area 1, “Basic Health Mechanisms and Technologies,” includes the following research lines: “Molecular and Functional Mechanisms of Human Health” and “Nanobiotechnology Applied to Health.” Area 2, “Health Promotion, Prevention and Intervention” includes the following research lines: “Health, Education, Environment and Labor,” “Health, Functionality, Occupation and Care,” and “Interdisciplinary Strategies in Health Promotion, Prevention and Intervention.” There is a clear link between the research lines and the developed projects, looking to establish partnerships aiming to promote growth in both research areas.
PPGCTS professors are mostly young doctors, but they have experience in obtaining resources from funding agencies, and getting technical-scientific cooperation and support from research groups in other UnB units and other national and international universities. According to the latest CAPES triennial evaluation, PPGCTS advisors “act in a coordinated manner based on the interdisciplinary purposes of the program, offering different options for professional training and fields to students.”
In respect to infrastructure, the PPGCTS has 14 laboratories with medium to large equipment. The structure of the laboratories reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the Program, allowing research in the fields of biological sciences, health sciences and exact sciences.
The general objective of the PPGCTS is to train master and PhD graduates for teaching, research and extension programs in health sciences and technologies, preparing them to produce and disseminate advanced scientific knowledge in the interdisciplinary area of health, integrating knowledge of related sciences with knowledge from the various areas of health.
The first students enrolled in the master’s degree and medical doctor degree programs were assigned to projects by researchers who lead or participate in research groups registered with the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development CNPq).
These researchers conduct studies related to two main thematic lines of health sciences and technologies: (1) soft technologies, involving categories that include social, conventional, sustainable and social environmental technologies; and (2) hard technologies, involving categories that include assistive technology, biotechnology and nanobiotechnology. The thematic line of soft technologies has been developed in both research areas of the program through interdisciplinary projects with contributions from the research lines inserted in these areas. These research lines cover investigations that combine contributions from different sciences in a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach, allowing the development of health-related aspects at all levels of care. The number of partnerships for jointly developed projects has increased, combining the research areas of soft technologies. Similarly, in the thematic axis of hard technologies, partnerships created through interdisciplinary projects contribute to the development of the two research areas of the program, joining contributions from different research lines under these two areas, and highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of this program since its creation.
As a natural evolution, and considering that the program has effectively operated since August 2011, the number of partnerships has increased between permanent professors and students and other professors from different research areas and lines of PPGCTS and other graduate programs.
This interdisciplinary arrangement guided by the thematic lines (soft and hard technologies) expands the network of cooperation inside and outside the program, resulting in joint scientific production between students and permanent professors from different research areas and professors from different programs.