History
The PPG Ecology and Biomonitoring of the Federal University of Bahia (PPGEcoBio) represents one of the 70 post-graduate programs of the country in Ecology. It is one of the 10 programs in this area with a CAPES (Coordination of Higher Education Personnel) score equal to or higher than 6 and is one of the 3 Programs in the subarea to integrate the three different stricto sensu postgraduate courses (MSc Academic, Doctorate and Professional Master Degrees). Regionally, its relevance is even greater: of the 16 programs in the Northeast of Brazil, it is one of the six that have a PhD course, the only one linked to a Professional Master degree and the only one with a concept equal or superior to 6. So far, PPGEcoBio graduated 250 students in academic courses.
Since its creation, the PPG-EcoBio has planned its development in order to make a significant contribution to the Ecological science in Brazil, which has guaranteed it, on several occasions, a leading role. For instance, the Academic Master, when created in 2000, represented the second course of the subarea in the Northeast of Brazil and the only one in this region to include research on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Some years later, in 2008, it was created the Doctoral course, the first in the Ecology in the region. In 2011, the Professional Master course was created and it was the second professional course in Ecology in Brazil and the first one fully integrated with a Public University.
The objectives of the PPGEcoBio courses (see "Objectives" below) have always pursued to fit the objectives of the Ecology area, as expressed in CAPES documents. Nevertheless, the program keeps peculiar characteristics due do its professors different expertises and areas of research and due to alive discussions about each type of ecologist the program wants to graduate. The evolution of the objectives was always accompanied by adaptations of the pedagogical proposal, anchored in a continuous process of evaluation of the curriculum and teaching strategies and carried out by teachers, students and external guests. The PPGEcoBio was created with five general research areas: Ecophysiology and animal behavior; Ecology of populations and communities; Ecology of interactions; Ecotoxicology and biomonitoring; and Epistemology, ecological theory and teaching. The latter, although associated with a relatively small number of teachers, represents an important differential of the course. More recently, based on the experience accumulated with the creation of the Professional Master's Degree, the academic courses also included the research area of "Ecology applied to environmental management".
The broadening of the academic experience of the faculty of the PPGEcoBio throughout its 16 years of existence, and its interaction in the formulation research questions and graduate training, have been guaranteeing financial support from the most qualified national agencies (e.g. CAPES, CNPq, FAPESB) and from different types of grants (e.g. Pronex, INCT, ProExt-MEC). This allowed the ample material conditions for the development of high quality research and to establishing fruitful partnerships with national and foreign institutions.
The PPGEcoBio evolution was associated with an increase in the theoretical and methodological scope of the research developed. The results of interdisciplinary studies (for example, with statistical physics, epistemology and teaching) and transdisciplinary studies (in interaction with professionals from applied sectors) as well as theoretical contributions were added to the typically disciplinary, academic and empirical works of the first years of the Program's existence.
PPGEcoBio has also developed activities to knowledge production, in partnership with managers and technical staff of environmental and educational areas outside academia aiming to generate solutions to relevant environmental problems, following directions by CAPES. These actions have generated important experiences of interdisciplinary dialogue (between academic disciplines) and transdisciplinary (between academia and non-academic sectors), expanding the theoretical and methodological scope of the dissertations and theses of the Program. In addition. The learning derived from these experiences has been incorporated into the teaching activities of the Program courses, contributing to the formation of masters and doctors that are able to map the difficulties associated with the approximation between ecological theory and application and contribute to overcome them.
The interaction of PPGEcoBio with undergraduate training activities has been valued since the creation of the Academic Master's Degree. Most of its professors teach courses in undergraduate courses, incorporating the experience derived from knowledge production activities into their classes. In addition, PPGECoBio academics supervise undergraduate students in science and technology programs and in monographs. Graduates are usually integrated into research groups that include post-graduate students, Brazilian and foreign researchers and professionals from the applied sectors (usually from the environmental and teaching areas) and have the opportunity to experience particularly qualified academic experiences.
In 2015, as one of the activities celebrating 15 years of the PPGEcoBio, the coordination promoted a series of debates aimed to promote the discussion of the Program. As a result, the regulations and the pedagogical projects of the Master's, Academic, Doctoral and Professional Master's courses have been updated.
In the quadrennial 2013-2016, the PPGEcobio had an average of 26 permanent professors and 6.5 collaborating professors per year. It offered 79 courses to an average of 38 doctoral students and 25 masters enrolled per year, graduating 24 doctors and 41 masters and producing 453 articles in periodicals and 70 books or book chapters.
