Brasília, August 8, 2025 – Brazilian and foreign professionals working in the management, provision, and quality assessment of health surveillance services, particularly in communicable diseases and in the border areas between Brazilian states and South America, now have another opportunity to expand their knowledge in this increasingly strategic field for national and international public health. The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) has launched the public calls for the selection process of the second cohort of the Educational Program in Health Surveillance at Borders, the VigiFronteiras-Brasil Program. This initiative is carried out in partnership with the Secretariat for Health and Environmental Surveillance of the Ministry of Health (SVSA/MS) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
The goal is to train master’s and doctoral degree holders to contribute to strengthening health surveillance actions and services in Brazil’s border regions and in neighboring countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela, as well as an Overseas Region of France, French Guiana). The public calls are available for download at www.campusvirtual.fiocruz.br and at https://formacaovigisaude.fiocruz.br/. Applications are free of charge and can be submitted until September 19 through Acesso Fiocruz (https://acesso.fiocruz.br).
A total of 40 openings are available for academic/professional master’s degrees and 35 for academic/professional doctoral degrees. Of this total, 55% are reserved for affirmative action, and 50% will be preferably allocated to professionals working in border regions of South American countries. The calls detail all eligibility requirements, required documentation, schedule, and all information about the three stages of the selection process: English proficiency test, curriculum/document analysis, and interview. All stages will be conducted online through digital platforms.
Applicants are solely responsible for monitoring the publication of the list of accepted applications, the results of all three selection stages and any appeals, as well as possible addenda or corrections, on the same webpage where they applied. Applicants must also ensure access to a stable high-speed internet connection and a device capable of accessing audio and video simultaneously, in real time. For candidates from countries whose official language is not Portuguese or Spanish, fluency in at least one of these languages is required to participate in the selection process.
Classes are scheduled to begin in January 2026. The program will be delivered in a hybrid format, with mandatory in-person meetings and synchronous (real-time) online sessions. The doctoral program lasts a minimum of 24 months and a maximum of 48 months, while the master’s program lasts a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 24 months.
