Project summary

Conecta Cientista is a free scientific collaboration platform focused on strengthening the AI Safety, Responsible AI, and AI Governance ecosystem in the Global South. (www.conectacientista.com.br)

The platform connects researchers, mentors, labs, institutions, and projects — enabling collaboration in alignment research, evaluations (evals), governance, safety-by-design, and frontier-risk studies.

The pilot phase focuses exclusively on AI, Responsible AI, and AI Safety, offering free matchmaking for research collaborations, study groups, community initiatives, and academic–industry connections.

We built a partial MVP with US$ 10,000 in bootstrap funding, and the core concept has already been validated through user interviews, partner interest, and early traction from universities and the AI Safety Brazil community.

Now we seek support to launch the full pilot and connect the next generation of AI Safety researchers across Brazil and Latin America.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Our goal is to build the collaboration infrastructure that the Global South urgently needs to accelerate AI Safety, Responsible AI, and AI Governance research.

We will achieve this by:

• Connecting AI researchers with mentors, labs, companies, grants, and collaboration opportunities through an AI-powered matchmaking platform.

• Strengthening Brazil’s AI Safety ecosystem, enabling researchers to find collaborators for alignment, governance, evals, biosafety, and safety-by-design projects.

• Providing access pathways for early-career researchers entering the AI Safety and Responsible AI fields.

• Creating regional hubs in Brazil and Latin America and enabling multilingual access (EN/PT/ES).

• Offering future microgrants and structured learning pathways for researchers entering AI Safety.

• Integrating the platform with TrilhAI (free Responsible AI learning platform) and AI Safety Brazil.

This pilot will exclusively focus on AI Safety and Responsible AI. Additional deep-tech areas will only be expanded in later phases, after the pilot is successful.

How will this funding be used?

Funding will directly support:

1. Platform Development & Infrastructure

• AI-powered matchmaking engine

• Full-stack + Bubble development

• Hosting, cloud services, backend architecture

• Multilingual interface (EN/PT)

2. Responsible AI & AI Safety Capacity Building

• Workshops, meetups, governance sessions

• Training resources (PT/EN)

• Support for alignment, evals, governance, and frontier-risk research

• Community-building for AI Safety Brazil

3. Researcher & AI Safety Community Support

• Onboarding and support for AI researchers

• Mapping skills/interests (alignment, evals, governance)

• Partnerships with universities and AI labs

• Content creation and translation

4. Microgrants (Phase 2)

• Seed funding for early alignment or evals research

• Incentives for collaborative academic–industry projects

• Support for early-career researchers and underserved regions

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Founder — Dr. Paula Coelho

• Postdoc in Scientific Entrepreneurship (UFPE, Brazil)

• PhD in Technological Innovation (UFMG, Brazil)

• MSc and BSc in Computer Science (UFPE, Brazil)

• Founder & CEO of Inovacia

• Creator of TrilhAI (Responsible AI learning platform) – www.trilhAI.com

• Organizer of BlueDot Impact AI Safety meetups in Brazil

• Raised over R$ 35 million (~US$ 7M) for AI, innovation, and scientific research projects

• NVIDIA Inception startup founder

• Strong network with Brazilian researchers, ICTs, innovation agencies, and policy stakeholders

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulacoelhoinovacia/

Co-Founder & Operations Lead — Flávia Coelho

• Postgraduate specialization in Generative AI

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science

• PMP-certified Project Manager with experience leading complex tech projects

• Expertise in platform operations, systems integration, workflows, and user onboarding

• Leads Conecta Cientista’s operations, community support, and execution

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fl%C3%A1via-c-52577928/

Support Team

• Bubble + full-stack developers

• AI Safety and Responsible AI researchers

• Scientific entrepreneurship mentors

• UX/design/content team

• Collaborators across universities in Brazil and Latin America

Track record:
The team has coordinated major AI projects, built educational platforms, raised significant R&D funding, and developed communities in Responsible AI and entrepreneurship — providing the operational and strategic capabilities needed to scale Conecta Cientista.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

Possible causes

• Limited development capacity without external funding

• Difficulty scaling beyond the partially built MVP

• Fragmented AI Safety and research communities in emerging economies

• Slow onboarding due to lack of operational infrastructure

• Underinvestment in Responsible AI ecosystems in the Global South

Outcomes if it fails

• AI Safety researchers in the Global South remain disconnected

• Growth of the Brazilian AI Safety ecosystem slows significantly

• Early-career researchers lose opportunities for collaboration and mentorship

• Latin America stays disconnected from global Responsible AI networks

Mitigation strategies (already in place)

• The MVP is partially built and the core concept has already been validated

• Strong existing communities (AI Safety Brazil, TrilhAI, university networks)

• High inbound demand from researchers seeking collaboration

• Lean, phased development strategy focused on measurable deliverables

Even with limited funding, development will continue — but full funding allows the platform to scale and deliver exponential impact across the Global South.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

US$ 10,000 — raised through founder bootstrap funding, used to build the initial Conecta Cientista MVP (platform development, hosting, basic matchmaking structure).

No external grants have been received yet — this Manifund application will be the first external support.