Figure 1. Map of Brazil, highlighting the Central-West region (its states and their respective capitals), Salvador (the first capital of Brazil 1549-1763), Rio de Janeiro city (the second capital of Brazil 1763 -1960) and São Paulo city.

In 1960, the Brazilian federal capital was moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília, which is located in the geographic center of Brazil, in order to favor the inland settlement and development, and to boost national integration. It was only in this same decade that the first Federal Universities were created in the Central-West region: the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) (1960) and the University of Brasília (UnB) (1962). Today, the region has eight Federal Universities and 65 campuses of its five Federal Institutes of Education, Science, and Technology. These numbers were achieved because of the Federal Universities Restructuring and Expansion Program (REUni), a Brazilian Federal Government initiative to expand the number of Higher Education Institutions, especially in the country’s less developed regions, in order to meet regional professional demands.²

These initiatives have had a direct positive impact on the growth of the academic landscape of Chemistry in the Central West region. All eight Federal Universities in the region, along with at least 14 other state and private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), offer undergraduate Chemistry programs.³ Ten graduate programs in Chemistry operate in the Central-West region, four of which offer academic master’s degrees, one professional master’s degree, one doctorate, and four offer both. The programs at UnB and UFG were recognized as programs of international excellence, with a score of 6 out of 7, and the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT) was recognized as a program of national excellence, with a score of 5 out of 7, by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) in the latest four-year national assessment.⁴

One of the pillars of the expansion of the region’s graduate system was the possibility of creating Associated Graduate Programs, which bring together research groups located in two or more HEIs. The first initiative involving regional institutions rely on the creation of a MultiInstitutional Doctorate in Chemistry, bringing together UFG, the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), and the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU). These programs, having become established, were split over a decade ago into three programs offering master’s and doctoral degrees. Inspired by this successful example, a second such initiative was established in 2017, bringing together the State University of Goiás (UEG), the Federal University of Catalão (UFCat), and the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD) in an Associated Doctorate. The split of this second initiative has also begun this year, with the incorporation of its own doctoral course into the UFGD program.

To assess the contribution that researchers from the Central- West region made to national chemistry research between 2020 and 2024, we searched in Web of Science® for articles published in the main categories directly related to chemistry, refining the search by region of the institutions.⁵ As a result, we observed that authors based in HEIs in the Central-West region contribute approximately 8% of Brazilian publications in the field of chemistry. This percentage coincides with the percentage that our region contributes to publications by Brazilian authors in the JBCS, according to monitoring conducted by the journal itself since 2011 and recently published in an editorial of this journal.⁶ The comparison between these data allows us to suggest that the JBCS is recognized as an important vehicle for the global dissemination of scientific knowledge by chemistry researchers from the Central-West region.

This scenario for chemistry research in our region deserves to be celebrated, given the short time since the establishment of many of our region’s HEIs and the various adverse circumstances we face. We experience logistical challenges that are exacerbated by our location in Brazil. Although all capitals in the Central-West region have airports, many chemicals arrive in Brazil by sea and can only be transported by land. The same can be said about the transportation of chemicals produced in Brazil, the vast majority of which are produced in the Northeast, Southeast, and South regions.

In this context, human resource mobility is also disadvantaged, reflecting, for example, in higher costs for essential research services - such as the installation and maintenance of medium to large-scale equipment. It is not uncommon, in fact, for companies to refuse services or the shipment of products to our universities, as well as the charging of prohibitive additional transportation fees.

Additionally, the great distances and high cost of air travel also hinder the flow of researchers, inhibiting closer interaction between institutions in the region and even participation in national and international scientific events - a reality that is more acute for the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso, those furthest from major centers and with a much lower volume of commercial flights available.

Fortunately, we have had the financial support of our state governments, through their Research Support Foundations (FAPs), as well as Brazilian federal government initiatives aimed at strengthening the development of research and innovation in the North, Northeast, and Central-West regions. In 2023, our FAPs contributed approximately R$ 325 million in research funding - a significant amount, but still quite small compared to the contributions observed in the country’s richest regions. Among important initiatives in regional development, we would like to highlight FUNDECT (MS), the first FAP to offer a state productivity grant. This is a very welcome movement, as it minimizes the noticeable discrepancy that can be seen again when looking at the results of the latest CNPq productivity grant announcement, in which only 7% of the grants were awarded to researchers in the Central-West region.

Considering the entire context outlined above, it is easy to see how much the JBCS has to contribute to softening some of the difficulties exemplified.

Front 1: Visibility for Research Developed in the Central-West Region

The multidisciplinary nature and unquestionable quality of the papers published in the JBCS are credentials recognized worldwide by its readers. Researchers from the Central-West region recognize it as one of the most important showcases for the rest of Brazil to be in contact with the research conducted in our region. This visibility minimizes the harmful effects of large territorial distances from other Brazilian science centers and fosters the establishment of partnerships.