Graduate Program in Physical Education

The PPGEF internationalization process is closely linked to the CAPES Internationalization Program (CAPES/PrInt), in which UFSC was selected among other Brazilian universities to implement research proposals. The Department of Physical Education is leading one of the funded projects at UFSC with the theme: Diagnosis and Intervention for Healthy Lifestyles in the Vital Cycle: Focus on Health Determinants, coordinated by the CNPq productivity fellow, Professor Diego Augusto S. Silva.

The main objective of the proposal is to recommend diagnostic actions and interventions focused on people’s lifestyles, with health determinants as their central aim. The secondary objectives are: a) to analyze health determinants (contextual, political, economic, social, genetic, biochemical and behavioral) that affect the lifestyle of people in different stages of life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age) ; b) to verify the effectiveness and impact of different interventions on health indicators; c) to propose health innovation strategies with a focus on health determinants; d) to propose health innovation strategies with a focus on health interventions; e) to develop a technological apparatus that serves as a basis for industries that work with health; f) to propose innovation actions that establish public health policies. The project started in August 2018 and will end in July 2022.

The team is composed of thirteen national researchers, nine from PPGEF/UFSC, and fifteen international researchers from different continents of the world. All international universities have a formal agreement with our institution to carry out this proposal, namely:

⁃ Deakin University – Australia

⁃ Queen’s University – Canada

⁃ University of Calgary – Canada

⁃ University of Cambridge – United Kingdom

⁃ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign – United States

⁃ University of Nebraska Medical Center – United States

⁃ University of Nottingham – United Kingdom

⁃ University of Ottawa – Canada

⁃ University of Southampton – United Kingdom

⁃ University of Udine – Italy

⁃ University of Washington – United States

⁃ University of Technology Sydney – Australia

⁃ Vrije Universiteit Brussel – Belgium, Western Norway

⁃ University of Applied Sciences – Norway

The in-house faculty members who are part of the CAPES-PrInt project have experience in collaborative work with foreign groups, characterized mainly by joint publications and international experience from doctoral degrees, postdoctoral studies or work/research missions abroad.

The foreign members of this project are leaders in their countries on topics related to the health field. They work in reference laboratories and they frequently receive students and researchers from other countries to carry out internships and exchange experiences. All of them supervise master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral students, so they are open to receiving the Brazilian scientific community. All members present a highly relevant scientific production and the metrics referring to their articles (number of citations) are considered high.

The internationalization program will include several actions, such as: three-month training courses; doctoral sandwich programs; postdoctoral fellowships; scholarships for visiting professors in Brazil; scholarships for junior and senior visiting professors abroad; and missions linked to the cooperation project. All these actions will take place over the next four years.

Proposed Activities (at UFSC):

1. a) Integrated courses: the graduate programs involved in this proposal will offer four annual courses in English to all UFSC graduate programs, which will be attended by international researchers participating in the project.
2. b) International seminars: seminars in English will be offered at UFSC and will be streamed online for free. National and international participant researchers will address the project themes.
3. c) Workshops: a technical workshop will directly address methodological aspects of research projects with the purpose of writing, on site, high impact scientific articles. For this workshop, participant international researchers will be present.
4. d) Evaluative symposium: in this symposium, which will take place at UFSC at the end of the second and fourth years of the project, it will be possible to receive feedback from the international researchers, who will come to Brazil to evaluate the project’s development and actions.
5. e) Young talent with experience abroad: with the network of renowned international researchers that has been created, it will be possible to attract PhDs from abroad to conduct postdoctoral studies at UFSC for at least 6 months.
6. f) Visiting professors: UFSC will receive such professors to teach courses, give lectures and participate in the research laboratories.

Proposed Activities (abroad):

1. a) Work missions: participant researchers will go to institutions abroad to conduct experiments, collect data and carry out field studies.
2. b) Sandwich doctoral program: doctoral students from the participant graduate programs will spend six months at a partner institution abroad.
3. c) Junior visiting professors (4 in 4 years): UFSC participant faculty members will carry out postdoctoral studies for 12 months in a partner institution abroad.