Brazil Education Minister Leonardo Barchini inaugurates IFRS Viamão campus and TecnoParque

On 7 May 2026, Brazil's education minister Leonardo Barchini visited the new IFRS Campus Zona Norte in Porto Alegre and later inaugurated the IFRS Viamão campus together with the institution’s TecnoParque. The Viamão site, acquired with R$ 42 million from the Novo Plano de Aceleração do Crescimento (Novo PAC), occupies 35,000 m² on a 16‑hectare plot that previously housed Tecnopuc. The opening ceremony was attended by ministers, university rectors and local officials, and featured a speech in Brazilian Sign Language by Rafaela de Almeida Leal, a deaf student.

The Viamão campus, which will expand its capacity from about 1,200 to roughly 1,500 students, will host around 50 professors and provide new technical and health courses, including nursing. The adjacent TecnoParque is planned as a hub for advanced research, technology incubation, and community projects such as initiatives with the MST, women’s groups and agricultural extension. Earlier in the day, Barchini toured the Zona Norte campus, a R$ 14.4 million PAC‑funded facility designed to train health‑sector professionals for the local SUS network.

Both sites are part of a broader federal effort to strengthen vocational and technological education in Rio Grande do Sul, linking academic training with the needs of regional hospitals and the emerging innovation ecosystem.