This afternoon, 8/23, at the headquarters of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), in Brasília, the launch of the Postgraduate Collaborative Information Governance Program (GoPG) was held, which aims to the integration of academic, scientific, technological and innovation systems related to postgraduate studies, in addition to offering information management tools and definition of standards and services.

RNP supported the development of the program that establishes a set of minimum parameters for obtaining, organizing and standardizing the use and dissemination of data related to the stricto sensu National Postgraduate System (SNPG). The organization and Capes remain aligned in cooperation to build technological solutions to facilitate data exchange and the implementation of public policies to improve postgraduate studies in Brazil and expand benefits for society.

Participating in the GoPG launch ceremony were the president of Capes, Mercedes Bustamente, the undersecretary of Information and Communication Technology (STIC) of the MEC, Fabio Campelo Ribeiro, the general director of RNP, Nelson Simões, the director of Evaluation at Capes, Paulo Jorge Santos and the director of Information Technology at Capes, Adi Balbinot, Junior.

“I think that this system or program, whatever you prefer, that is launched today seems like a cry from fans: ‘GoPG’! And everything has to work out. I think there is an essential part of the SNPG, which is our coordinators and deans of Capes' postgraduate programs. I hope that a system like this really makes life easier for these essential actors, improves the quality of our information and also gives a return to society. The National Postgraduate System has grown, diversified, internalized, but needs to internalize further, it has internationalized, but it needs to internationalize further, and, today, we are clear that this 60-year construction needs to continue, but in other ways. We cannot repeat the steps of the past. For this, this system will be essential, to help us pave, prospect and understand how we are going to move forward with this large, complex and much-needed system for the country. It is very important that it conveys these two words: governance and collaborative. It is exactly in this interface between the coordination - Capes - and the institutions that we will pave this path towards postgraduate studies that we want and that the country needs”, highlighted the president of Capes, Mercedes Bustamante in her speech.

For the general director of RNP, Nelson Simões, collaborative work in systems integration is a fundamental movement to overcome the challenges imposed by the need for data interoperability.

“GoPG is collaborative governance and we think this is the best way, the right recipe to generate public value, because it is necessary to build simplicity and efficiency for the actors in this system. It also presents itself as a strategy for how we should face scenarios that are complex with processes and data that, by nature, are interdomain, multiagency, transinstitutional, all prefixes of challenges that arise in this digital environment, in which governance is fundamental. We think we will be successful in this new stage, in this evolution, because we have this convergent vision, we are working to reduce transaction costs between actors, we are aiming for a qualification of decisions in the research area and we hope that this can also increase the qualified reuse of information that is naturally distributed. May we bring this comfort to all of us who have important missions in education and research in Brazil. Congratulations to Capes for the strategic vision, to the experts who founded this idea and who are improving it and especially to the universities, which are the pioneers and, together, are qualifying this vision that we are launching today”, highlighted Nelson.

In the view of MEC's Undersecretary of Information and Communication Technology (STIC), Fabio Campelo Ribeiro, the GoPG is a great first step towards creating a national platform that brings together all the country's education data.

“This initiative is very positive and, in fact, Capes takes the lead in relation to this collaborative governance, which is fundamental for us to be able to have an education data ecosystem. What we are talking about, postgraduate studies, is just one arm, as MEC we need to look at everyone, at basic and higher education levels as well. We at MEC will not only support, but we intend to follow very closely so that we can drink this water, learn what is being done here to bring experience to what we intend, which is a national education data platform, where we can in fact constitute an environment that allows interoperability”, he stated.

Celebration of ten years of Sucupira
The event also celebrated ten years of the Sucupira platform, a tool developed from the partnership between Capes and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) that collects information and works as a reference base for the National Postgraduate System (SNPG). Since 2019, RNP has supported the update of the solution, based on visits to universities to assess difficulties and needs of Postgraduate Programs. The new Sucupira has updated technologies and usability and new information panels will gradually be made available in the system, which is much faster and more reliable, as well as prepared for future integrations with other bases.

Check out the full event broadcast: