Niterói hosts 78th SBPC Annual Meeting, Brazil's largest scientific gathering

For the first time, the coastal city of Niterói will host the 78th Annual Meeting of the Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência (SBPC), the largest scientific congress in Latin America. The event runs from 26 July to 1 August at the Gragoatá campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFF), the Cantareira Innovation District and the Reserva Cultural, and is expected to attract more than 40,000 participants.

The programme is free and open to the public, featuring conferences, round‑tables, exhibitions, cultural activities and science‑communication initiatives. The theme, “Science for all: sovereignty, development and inclusion,” will address topics such as rare‑earth minerals, nuclear research, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, health‑industry complexes, climate change, the legacy of COP30, Industry 4.0, pesticide impacts, micro‑plastics, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Prominent Brazilian scientists, including biomedicine expert Helena Nader, physicist Ricardo Galvão, climate researcher Paulo Artaxo, and public‑health scholar Nísia Trindade, are slated to speak.

Mayor Rodrigo Neves and SBPC president Francilene Procópio Garcia highlighted the meeting as an opportunity to bring scientific discourse closer to citizens and to strengthen links between the university and the broader community.