APPROACHES TO THE CREATION OF AN ENVIRONMENT OF SCIENTIFIC INITIATION, EXTENSION AND INNOVATION IN THE COURSES OF THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF BRAZIL SYSTEM - PICEI/UAB/CAPES

Abstract

This article presents itself as a case study and addresses the creation of an Environment for Scientific Initiation, Extension, and Innovation in the Courses of the Open University System of Brazil (PICEI-UAB). In the field of observation of Yin (2015), the case study seeks to explain some circumstance, how or why such a phenomenon works. It should be noted that this academic action had its origin from a pilot scientific initiation project carried out in the period 2020/2021, led by the Distance Education Directorate of CAPES, through financing via a decentralized execution term signed with the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA). This pilot was developed in 06 municipalities/hubs of the state of Maranhão, with the participation of 140 students, 03 tutors, and 03 executive managers. The Project to Encourage the Creation of an Environment for Scientific Initiation, Research, University Extension and Innovation (PICEI-UAB) under analysis presents itself as a possibility for the centers of the Open University of Brazil, through the actions of the universities and their professors, tutors and managers, to optimize their academic actions in order to encourage the creation of an environment favorable to research, extension and innovation and, in this way, promote, in the courses, a training path that will boost local and regional development. The Open University of Brazil System - UAB has in its context 151 public higher education institutions that interact in more than 1,100 centers and has assumed an important role in training at the Undergraduate and Lato Sensu Postgraduate levels, characterizing its action in a decentralized manner in municipal centers or associated with the institutions, as a way of disseminating higher education to places outside the large urban centers, in places where, possibly, there has never been a higher education center. The initial phase of implementation of PICEI is taking place in 2025, and already has more than 60 projects in operation.