State launches new notices to strengthen female entrepreneurship

The Government of Goiás launches two new notices to strengthen innovative entrepreneurship and scientific research led by women in Goiás, this Monday (25/03). The two notices are part of the Goianas Science and Innovation Program and, together, add up to almost R$1.3 million in resources.

A notice will have R$782 thousand for scientific initiation scholarships; the other, R$500,000 to support up to 10 women-owned startups. The program is an initiative of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation of Goiás (Secti).

“We believe in science and we want everyone to be in it. Therefore, we want to correct the distortions that make women a minority in the area. To change a culture, we need new stories, but sometimes those stories already exist. What we need is to shed light on them. So, we are here to help show these stories, which are often invisible, and to form others, guaranteeing more opportunities for the people of Goiás”, says José Frederico Lyra Netto, head of Secti.

“This program [Goianas na Ciência e Inovação] It will have a huge impact on the lives of many women who need these opportunities. The Government of Goiás is very supportive of the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence at the Federal University of Goiás. So, seeing this effort and concern, especially with younger girls, made me very happy”, says Heloisy Rodrigues, the first woman to graduate from the Artificial Intelligence higher education course in Brazil.

New notices

One of the notices launched this Monday concerns the Goiás Women’s Initiation Project in Innovation and Science (Pimic), carried out in partnership with the Goiás State Research Support Foundation (Fapeg). The notice aims to support research projects developed by female students, under the guidance of PhD professors, in priority and strategic areas in the State of Goiás.

Pimic offers scientific initiation scholarships worth R$800 per month, in addition to a technical reserve for expenses related to the scholarship recipients’ work plans. Research proposals can be submitted from April on the Fapeg website. In total, R$782,000 will be available.

“This is yet another action to strengthen more women in this environment. This is the third call launched within the Goianas Science and Innovation Program – we have two other calls for applications open until April 15 –, but there is still a lot to be done: 58% of Fapeg scholarship holders are women; when we look at the coordination of research projects, they are only 45%. In the area of ​​innovation, it is 22%. This shows that we have a long way to go towards this gender equality”, says the president of Fapeg, Marcos Arriel.

Entrepreneurship

The second notice, called Eleve, is aimed at supporting and promoting the innovative entrepreneurship of women from Goiás, made in partnership with Hub Goiás. Interested entrepreneurs can register until May 5th, submitting their business proposals using the form available on the Hub Goiás website.

The program will select up to 50 new businesses that meet the established prerequisites, offering training, specialized consultancy and connection events over three phases. At the end, a total prize pool of R$500,000 will be divided among the 10 startups that perform best during the acceleration phases.

Eleve’s main objective is to promote the evolution of startups led by women, enabling them to become mature companies, with a scalable business model, fostering the development of the ecosystem of startups founded by women and promoting business acceleration, connection and belonging in the market.

“I have never seen such a hot innovation movement as what I see in Goiás, which has a thriving ecosystem and several institutions talking, especially on this topic”, describes Johnny Laranjeira, Innovation Superintendent at Hub Goiás.

With the two new notices, Goianas in Science and Innovation has already contributed almost R$5 million in just 10 months, of which approximately R$3 million in 2024 alone to attract girls to careers in the areas of Exact Sciences, Engineering and Computing , in addition to supporting the execution of research and extension projects for women in these areas.