CAPES and CNPq scholarships

The Program has a limited number of CAPES and CNPq scholarship slots available for Master’s and Doctoral students. Therefore, when slots become available, a selection process is conducted and announced to enrolled students via the Program’s email. This selection process—used to rank candidates and award scholarships—takes place once per semester. Should scholarships become vacant, the ranking established during the selection process is used to award them throughout the semester. If the list from the semester’s selection process is exhausted, the PPG will announce a new selection process to ensure available scholarships do not go unused.

CAPES Scholarship Allocation Criteria – PPGRDF-USP Scholarship Committee

• Students are eligible to receive a Master’s or Doctoral scholarship if they provide proof of having applied for a FAPESP scholarship; the CAPES scholarship must be released upon approval by that funding agency.
• Eligibility extends to students whose laboratories currently hold no scholarships or to ensure an equitable minimum number of scholarships across laboratories. Priority in allocation is given to laboratories that do not hold any scholarships at either graduate level (Master’s or Doctoral).
• Scholarships are allocated to laboratories based on the total number of slots available per advisor, without distinguishing between Master’s and Doctoral levels. Awards are restricted to students supervised by permanent advisors of the PPG-RDF/USP.
• For classification and ranking purposes, the merit of graduate students is taken into account. Factors considered include the number of published scientific articles and the quality of the journals (based on indexing and percentile), with higher scores awarded to articles ranked more highly according to current CAPES standards.
• The student’s position in the authorship—specifically, whether listed as first, second, penultimate, or last author—will also be taken into account.
• Students dedicated exclusively to the PPGRDF—who hold no employment and do not receive other types of scholarships permitted under Ordinance [INSERT]—will receive additional points in the selection process.
• The selection process for CAPES scholarships is now the responsibility of the PPG-RDF/USP PROEX Committee.
• The duration of CAPES scholarships shall be a maximum of 24 (twenty-four) months for the master’s program and up to 36 (thirty-six) months for the doctoral program, deducting any period already completed, regardless of any extension to the thesis/dissertation defense deadline. Exceptionally, in specific situations such as pregnancy or other duly justified circumstances, an extension may be reviewed and decided upon by the Program Coordinating Committee (CCP). Scholarship continuation will be evaluated annually based on a form assessing activities performed during the period, as well as an opinion issued by a faculty member.