One of the goals of the public university is to take the initiative to change society. The CEO of the Science Park, José Carlos Pinto, gave a talk about this at TEDxUFRJ which focused on the subject “Which kind of UFRJ do we wish for our children?”. During the presentation José Carlos Pinto told the audience about a little ball that has become one of main allies of health sciences in the eradication of schistosomiasis in Brazil and in the world. The professor explained the details of the research developed in one of the university labs which has created a nanoball capable of storing the medicine that is currently used to treat the disease despite its lower efficacy in children due to its extreme sour taste. For the professor and researcher, this shows that science and inventions need to be exported from the labs so that they can change the society. At UFRJ, several environments, such as the Science Park and the Coppe/UFRJ Business Incubator, hold this mission.
