Brazilian Center for Early Childhood Development

The Brazilian Center for Early Childhood Development (Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisa Aplicada à Primeira Infância - CPAPI) is a major research center that grew out of the NCPI Scientific Committee. Housed at Insper and supported by the São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP), the Maria Cecília Souto Vidigal Foundation, the Bernard van Leer Foundation and Porticus, the center aims to foster equal opportunities for children aged 0 to 6 years by generating relevant scientific knowledge and evidence on ECD in Brazil and transferring learnings, technologies and data to policymakers and governments throughout the country. CPAPI was launched in 2021 and has an anticipated timeline of 10 years for its initial stage of funding and partnerships. CPAPI’s research agenda is developed by an interdisciplinary group of 6 primary investigators and 12 associate researchers. CPAPI’s Brazil-based researchers also draw ideas and advice from an international scientific advisory committee composed of five global experts: Aisha Yousafzai (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) Charles Nelson (Harvard Medical School and Harvard Graduate School of Education) Dana McCoy (Harvard Graduate School of Education) Flavio Cunha (Rice University) Marcia Castro (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)

Left to right, top to bottom: Aisha Yousafzai, Claudio Haddad, Marcia Castro, Naercio Menezes Filho, Jack Shonkoff, Mariana Luz, Luiz Eugênio Mello, Dana McCoy, Sylvio Canuto, Marcos Lisboa, Flavio Cunha and Roberta Ricardes at the Brazilian Center for Early Childhood Development launch event VIDEO: BRAZILIAN CENTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT LAUNCH EVENT

In partnership with CPAPI and Professor Aisha Yousafzai of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in early 2021 DRCLAS opened a public call for two postdoctoral research fellowship positions, the first for Intervention and Implementation Research and the second for Trials.

A highly impressive pool of 38 eligible candidates applied to the fellowship positions. After a rigorous selection process, two promising young Brazilian researchers were selected:

CPAPI-DRCLAS POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

BRUNA LARISSA SEIBEL

Ph.D. in Psychology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

JULIANA ARAUJO TEIXEIRA

Ph.D. in Nutrition in Public Health, University of São Paulo “DRCLAS has played an important role in the development of new initiatives that have increased awareness of the importance of ECD in Brazilian society. The NCPI Scientific Committee was inspired by and benefited from dialogue with the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child at HCDC. The creation of the Brazilian Center for Early Childhood Development (CPAPI) benefited from conversations with NSCDC-HCDC researchers and from conferences organized by Harvard professors about the implementation of ECD programs.DRCLAS and Professor Aisha Yousafzai are currently supporting two CPAPI post-docs and will facilitate interactions with Harvard experts to discuss the implementation of CPAPI projects”

NAERCIO AQUINO MENEZES FILHO

Ruth Cardoso Chair and Full Professor, Insper; Associate Professor, University of São Paulo; Director of the Brazilian Center for Early Childhood Development (CPAPI)