Even before its official creation, in 2013, CENABIO/UFRJ already participated in extension projects in collaboration with other UFRJ units, receiving students from the public network, from all over the State of Rio de Janeiro, in its facilities, so that they could get to know a little more about the day-to-day life of a research center at such a renowned University. Regardless of the project involved, CENABIO/UFRJ is always open to visits by schools, groups or people from within or outside the university who wish to learn more about its operation, staff and equipment.
In partnership with the National Institute of Science and Technology of Structural Biology and Bioimaging (INBEB), in 2010 the Center for Education and Scientific Dissemination (NEDiCi) was created. NEDiCi has organized more than 20 courses, such as Holiday Courses (inspired by the methodology of Professor Leopoldo De Meis), practical and non-expository courses, in which a theme is proposed by the monitors. The students themselves discuss and create experiments on this topic, being only helped by the monitors to reach their own conclusions. These are courses aimed at undergraduates, teachers and students of basic education (with approximately 800 participants), an opportunity that complements the training of undergraduate and graduate students, since they act as monitors in the referred courses and are trained to provide an environment that favors creativity and encourages critical thinking, working with multidisciplinary themes such as biology, chemistry, physics, arts, mathematics, among others.
In 2017, the project “Integration of High School in the Serrana Region of Nova Friburgo with the University”, coordinated by Professor Emiliano Horacio Medei, was registered by CENABIO/UFRJ at UFRJ, thus becoming the first official extension project of CENABIO/ UFRJ. This project emerged in 2010, still at the Carlos Chagas Filho Institute of Biophysics (IBCCF) and at what would later become CENABIO/UFRJ. This project aims to bring together and integrate the Serrana Region of the State of Rio de Janeiro with UFRJ, through the dissemination and popularization of Science in the region. With support from the State of Rio de Janeiro Research Foundation (FAPERJ), a science laboratory was built and the library at Colégio Estadual José Martins da Costa, a partner school in the project, was renovated, which allowed for courses, fairs of science and several other activities that allowed students and teachers to experience a bit of the reality of a scientist.
It was in 2018, with the creation of the Extension Board, and the appointment of the first Deputy Director of Extension at CENABIO/UFRJ, Isalira Peroba Rezende Ramos, that CENABIO/UFRJ began to expand its extension projects and show its space and relevance in its area, thus fulfilling its role in the Education and dissemination of Science to the general public, participating in the process of forming citizens. In response to the high demand for knowledge and the need for rapprochement between academia and society, CENABIO/UFRJ proposed to develop activities aimed at children, young people and adults that would make it possible to face the challenges generated by poor communication, promoting a real approximation between university academic community and the school. From that moment on, several projects were created with the intention of expanding CENABIO/UFRJ’s activities in the university extension scenario.
