Over the past two decades, Brazilian science has seen a substantial increase in volume. However, the surge in articles does not necessarily equate to progress in Brazilian science, considering that a significant portion of the scientific literature in the biomedical field is not reproducible. Without empirical data on the reproducibility of published results, the scientific community and funding agencies cannot accurately assess the country’s science and technology policies. The Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative, founded by physician and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) professor Olavo Amaral, seeks to address this issue by systematically replicating a sample of Brazilian science experiments through a multicenter approach.
Olavo Bohrer Amaral
Open Science
Olavo Amaral is a physician-scientist and fiction writer. He earned his medical degree and doctorate in biological sciences from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He also completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Barcelona, Spain. Dr. Amaral is a lecturer at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and has published three books of short stories.
Dr. Amaral’s research on reproducibility is a groundbreaking and significant step forward for Brazilian science. As the head of the Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative, he aims to replicate Brazilian biomedical studies to evaluate their validity. Despite his busy schedule as a university lecturer and researcher, Dr. Amaral also finds time to play the clarinet, guitar, and piano. He is married to a neuroscientist and has a son and a stepson.
Projects
Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative
Science / Open Science
Amount invested
2018: R$ 161,000,00
2019: R$ 1,000.000,00
Additive 2022: R$ 52.631,58
2024: R$ 200,000,00
2019: R$ 1,000.000,00
Additive 2022: R$ 52.631,58
2024: R$ 200,000,00
No-Budget Science Hack Week
Science / Open Science
No-Budget Science Hack Week is an intensive one-week workshop that aims to develop meta-science research projects in biomedicine using publicly available data, following the no-budget philosophy: a laptop in hand and an idea in mind. The event aims to develop research projects and/or tools to address major challenges in the modern scientific process, including data availability, reliability, reproducibility, the publication system, resource and funding distribution, and researcher training.
Amount invested
2019 Grant: R$ 9,000,00
2021 Grant: R$ 24,210.53
2022 Grant: R$ 26,315.79
2023 Grant: R$ 27,500,00
2024 Grant: R$ 28,000,00
2021 Grant: R$ 24,210.53
2022 Grant: R$ 26,315.79
2023 Grant: R$ 27,500,00
2024 Grant: R$ 28,000,00
