REDECLIMA’s work is structured around five strategic themes.

The research analyses, in a critical and interdisciplinary way, the factors that structure poverty and social exclusion in Brazil and worldwide, such as food insecurity, racism, xenophobia, gender inequality, discrimination based on sexual orientation, digital exclusion, precarious work and unequal access to education, health and housing. The theme also covers the planning, design and evaluation of public policies to reduce inequalities, aimed at mitigating the effects of the climate emergency and promoting well-being. It further includes studies on communication and on media, psychological, digital and environmental literacies; on the democratic foundations of the State and the risks of authoritarianism; and on the role of social movements, solidarity networks, civil society organizations and alternative forms of political participation, understood as instruments of social transformation.

These investigations gain relevance in view of the disproportionate impacts of the climate emergency on groups in situations of social and environmental vulnerability. Through internationalization, the network seeks to strengthen partnerships among its member institutions, acknowledging their different levels of international engagement, and to foster a collaborative culture that helps reduce regional inequalities. It also intends to develop comparative studies on the impacts of climate disasters on vulnerable populations and on mitigation policies in different territories, and to investigate the role of civil society in the face of climate denialism. Internationalization may take shape through cooperative networks with foreign institutions, joint scientific projects, academic mobility of faculty and students and participation in international forums, with efforts concentrated on internationalization at home and the promotion of multilingualism. The proposal includes the creation of a chair in “Combating environmental injustice” at a partner federal university.

Participating fields include pharmacology, cell and molecular biology, neuroscience, epidemiology, nutrition, psychiatry and psychology, public health, nursing, veterinary medicine, animal science, nanotechnology and drug discovery. The theme also includes studies on patient safety and quality of care, transplantation, mental health and work, ethics and rights in health, implementation science, WHO programs to reduce health inequalities and clinical simulation in teaching.

One of the central axes of internationalization is Planetary Health, a field that investigates how global environmental changes (climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution) simultaneously affect the health of populations and of ecosystems. The network intends to promote international partnerships and foster transdisciplinary research on the effects of health crises, zoonoses, environmental disasters and climate change on bodies, territories and social bonds.

The proposal values diverse forms of knowledge, including traditional and community knowledge, and adopts buen vivir (living well) as a guiding principle for its actions. Faculty and student mobility will be encouraged through institutional agreements, contributing to the training of professionals with a critical, intercultural outlook committed to planetary sustainability. It also aims to stimulate multilingualism and internationalization at home, and to create a chair dedicated to Planetary Health at a partner federal university.

It also addresses adaptation to and mitigation of climate and socio-environmental disasters in cities and the integration of urban spaces with the planet. The theme further considers the psychosocial, cultural and subjective dimensions of urban life, such as community resilience, territorial justice and tangible and intangible heritage. It analyses how infrastructure, leisure areas, technologies and public policies affect ways of inhabiting, belonging and resisting in urban territories, in order to contribute to strategies and public policies that take into account social diversity, processes of exclusion and inclusion, and the strengthening of communities in the face of social and environmental crises.

These investigations gain relevance because they involve innovative approaches to generating, analysing and using data and linking them to technologies that optimize resources, repair and reduce environmental impact, meet needs and guarantee rights. In line with the objectives of the CAPES-Global.Edu Program, internationalization seeks to strengthen collaborative networks among institutions with different levels of international engagement, promoting a culture of internationalization that helps reduce regional inequalities. Its objectives include: consolidating international comparative studies in the field of smart cities; establishing partnerships with universities and research institutes in cities vulnerable to climate and environmental disasters, producing diagnoses that help public managers mitigate their impacts; deepening international cooperation towards more inclusive, sustainable and resilient cities; and encouraging research in Engineering, Exact and Earth Sciences, Agricultural Sciences and Applied Social Sciences. The proposal also includes the promotion of multilingualism and the creation of a chair dedicated to sustainable and resilient urban development at one of the partner federal universities.

Contributing fields include the arts, literature, anthropology, social psychology, media and communication, information science, statistics, public health, movement sciences and nursing, the latter focused on the care of people, groups and populations. It includes research linking the climate crisis to denialism and scientific disinformation, with the aim of countering these phenomena, as well as investigations into how education, art and culture operate as forces of resistance and re-existence in the face of contemporary forms of exclusion, suffering and destruction of life. Drawing on critical, decolonial and intersectional epistemologies, the theme encompasses studies that consider multiple languages (poetic, narrative, visual and performative) as creative forces for fairer and more habitable worlds, as well as research on racial and gender literacy.

The objectives of internationalization include promoting partnerships among the network’s institutions, acknowledging their distinct trajectories and levels of international engagement, and fostering an institutional culture of internationalization, with a view to reducing inequalities and consolidating sustainable networks. The network intends to consolidate and develop international studies in the Humanities, in Linguistics, Literature and the Arts, and in the Applied Social Sciences, with emphasis on valuing cultural expressions, designing inclusive public policies and building fairer, more diverse and more resilient societies. It also intends to take an active part in international research in Communication and Information Science, focused on promoting a scientific culture oriented towards confronting disinformation. Also planned are investigations into the protection of human rights and care for life in its many dimensions, and comparative research on critical, decolonial and intersectional epistemologies that value the narratives and knowledge of Indigenous peoples and the Afro-Brazilian population. The proposal includes the creation of a chair dedicated to the theme at an associated federal university.

The focus is on sustainability and on confronting global change, with emphasis on practices that reconcile productivity, environmental protection and social inclusion. The research includes the modeling and forecasting of extreme climate events and the management and provision of information to support decision-making. It also addresses air, water and soil quality across territories, the conservation of biomes, sustainable forest management, agroecology, mining and biodiversity, energy production and the recovery of degraded areas, with fundamental rights in mind. It therefore also covers access to drinking water, basic sanitation, clean energy, lighting, decent housing, education and one health. Using approaches such as remote sensing, environmental modeling, biotechnology and sustainable engineering, the projects have the potential to contribute to rural development, water security, ecosystem conservation and the promotion of more resilient and healthier territories. The theme also brings together research that critically analyses ways of life, socio-environmental inequalities and the territorial conflicts generated by processes of exploitation, urbanization and environmental degradation. These investigations gain relevance in view of the intensification of global ecological crises, which directly affect forms of community organization and cause the displacement of populations. Such crises bear on strategic issues such as the public and private exploitation of natural assets, concessions and privatizations, and State control mechanisms, such as river basin committees and other bodies of environmental governance.

In line with the CAPES-Global.Edu Program, internationalization seeks to promote partnerships among the network’s institutions, acknowledging their different trajectories, and to foster an institutional culture oriented towards scientific cooperation on socio-environmental issues. One objective is to develop international comparative studies on access to drinking water, basic sanitation, clean energy, public lighting, decent housing, education, one health and air quality, to support inclusive and sustainable public policies aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and with local and global demands. Another is to encourage research in Exact and Earth Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering and Health Sciences, focused on the integrated management of environmental systems and natural resources, in collaboration with international partners who share similar concerns. The proposal includes the creation of a chair dedicated to the theme at an associated federal university.