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
How can transparent and reliable practices be promoted in the Brazilian scientific community? This challenge inspired the creation of the Brazilian Reproducibility Network in 2023. This multidisciplinary initiative brings together groups, institutions, and individuals across the country to evaluate and improve practices in different areas of science through methodological rigour, collaboration, and transparency.
The Network is part of an international group structured in different countries. It aims to exchange experiences and contribute to more reliable science at a global level.
Amount invested
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.
The Initiative concluded its work in the first half of 2024, and as a result of the project, the Brazilian Reproducibility Network was created to promote transparent and reliable practices in the country’s scientific community.
Amount invested
Grant 2019: R$ 1.000.000,00
Additive 2022: R$ 52.631,58
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
Grant 2021: R$ 24.210,53
Grant 2022: R$ 26.315,79
Grant 2023: R$ 27.500,00
