RESEARCH STRUCTURES

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PUCRS has an institutional model of research structures to provide a unified and conceptual understanding to establish the University as a Teaching and Research Institution and to provide greater visibility of the performed research.

PUCRS has constantly invested in its research infrastructure, organized in the form of Research Groups, Nuclei, Laboratories, Centers, and Institutes. These research structures strive to integrate researchers and undergraduate / graduate students, promoting the development of research projects focused on the generation or the advancement of knowledge, in addition to producing innovative results and intellectual gains for the benefit of society.

Research Group

The smallest unit of the research structures of PUCRS, and therefore an element that is part of all the other structures, is the Research Group. Researchers from the Institutions of Higher Education, undergraduate and graduate students, and external researchers interact with Research Groups, which are organized around research lines and a leadership. The formation of Research Groups, which are registered in the Directory of Research Groups of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), represents the search for shared experiences and the commitment to regular and quality scientific, technological, and artistic production.

The qualification and variety of the Research Groups of PUCRS has ensured the institution has received first place among private universities during the last four censuses (2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010) in the Directory of Research Groups of CNPq.

Research Nucleus

The Research Nucleus is an organizational research structure that belongs to a University Unit, which is characterized by the association of researchers that belong to one or more of the Research Groups registered with the CNPq, students, and external researchers, all committed to the development of scientific research activities related to an area of knowledge and a common research problem.

Research Laboratory

The Research Laboratory is an organizational research structure linked to a University Unit in a particular physical space composed of equipment and human and material resources appropriate for the performance of research projects that require experiments, tests, and controlled research procedures, along with scientific and technological creation and production.

Research Center

The Research Center is an integrated environment for scientific investigation activities that includes one or more Laboratories and/or Nuclei and/or Groups and involves researchers and students in developing large-scale projects or in cooperation with other governmental agencies, public and private companies, and scientific and technological research institutes.

The Research Center has a thematic guideline and assumes the role of positioning the University as a leader in the related area. Its activities are preferentially interdisciplinary, involving researchers from different University Units to qualify projects with complementarity among knowledge areas.

Research Institute

The Research Institute is the largest organizational structure in the research area, whose objective is to meet the demands of sciences, technology, and innovation, including activities from all or some of the institutional research structures described above. It is an independent administrative unit, is interdisciplinary in nature, and has goals of research development and intellectual production. The Research Institute offers physical space, human resources, materials, and services to the academic and scientific community and the community in general (i.e., companies, government, and other organizations).