The mission of PPGODONTO-UFU (Graduate Program in Dentistry at the Federal University of Uberlândia) is to foster the production of internationally relevant knowledge, promoting social transformation through the training of human resources. The program aims to advance the country's technological innovation in conjunction with improvements in health indicators, access to healthcare, and the quality of life of individuals at local, regional, and national levels, while maintaining an international reach through its educational initiatives and the knowledge it generates.

Objectives

The Graduate Program in Dentistry at the Federal University of Uberlândia has the following objectives:

A. To train highly qualified human resources with technical-scientific and didactic-pedagogical excellence for the development of scientific research, technological innovation, public health management, and higher education teaching in the field of Dentistry;

B. To develop, through multidisciplinary integration, research aligned with the program’s research lines, aimed at improving education, diagnosis, and solving problems of local, regional, and/or national interest. These efforts are also directed at the development of new technologies to enhance health and quality of life, generating social impact across Brazil through the Unified Health System (SUS), with an international scope of action;

C. To encourage the internationalization of students and faculty through initiatives such as sandwich Ph.D. programs, technical visits, international missions, postdoctoral programs, and participation in conferences. These initiatives are guided by institutional policy and the program’s mission, leveraging innovative solutions to transform local, regional, and national realities;

D. To consolidate and expand partnerships through networked projects with research centers and high-quality graduate programs from other regions of Brazil and abroad. These partnerships aim to increase international and national publications, enhance recognition metrics, raise citation indices, and thus increase the program’s international visibility and dissemination of the knowledge generated at PPGODONTO/UFU;

E. To interact with the business sector by sharing the physical spaces and human resources of PPGODONTO/UFU, promoting development and technological innovation through new processes, products, and equipment focused on research and human health care. The goal is to improve access to and treatment protocols for major oral cavity diseases, especially through the transfer of technologies to SUS;

F. To maintain and create partnerships with research centers and graduate programs in Brazil through networked projects, aiming for greater integration of these centers in conducting research, particularly multicenter clinical studies. Special attention has been given to consolidating partnerships with graduate programs in the North and Northeast regions of the country;

G. To return to society highly trained professionals capable of transforming the communities in which they live. Additionally, to generate high-quality dissertations and theses that directly impact the quality of life of the Brazilian population;

H. To constantly update the didactic-pedagogical structure of PPGODONTO-UFU, adapting research activities to broaden its areas of focus and to consolidate its vocation for generating knowledge capable of impacting both primary and specialized healthcare services within SUS.