The UFMG main campus is located at the Pampulha region of the city of Belo Horizonte. The total area of this land-campus equals 8,769,690 square meters, with a built area reaching 639,777 square meters. Aside from the main campus in Pampulha, in the same city there are the UFMG Health Sciences campus at Alfredo Balena Avenue in the city's hospitals district (or Santa Efigênia district), the UFMG School of Architecture and Design campus located at the Savassi district, and the Faculty of Law and State Sciences campus at the city center (in Belo Horizonte there are also ecological parks and cultural facilities such as a Conservatoire and 20 museums that belong to, and are administered by, the university).
Outside of Belo Horizonte, UFMG has the Agronomic Sciences Campus in the city of Montes Claros, and a cultural campus in the city of Tiradentes (both in the state of Minas Gerais). The UFMG has also several other facilities such as Casa da Glória in Diamantina. Within the Pampulha Campus there is the CDTN, a Federal Institute for Nuclear Sciences Research. The campus avails of 38 built facilities, hundreds of scientific research laboratories and a 250 kW TRIGA nuclear reactor from General Atomics. There is also an extensive area of secondary forest known as the Estação Ecológica ("Ecological Station"), where some university scientists – mainly ecologists and zoologists – carry out research; this is the largest green space within the city boundaries, and is home to endemic insect species.
UFMG has been ranked among the best universities in Brazil and in Latin America.
The Office of the Dean of Research advises the university administration on scientific and technological research, as well as encouraging research. The Center for Technology Innovation and Transfer promotes activities that apply technology development and transfer knowledge between UFMG and the community, via the creation of partnerships between researchers and business.
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Information Science
The School of Information Science (former School of Librarian Science) has a full-time academic staff that explores research topics in the areas of Scientific and Technological, Managerial, and Social and Historical Information. In addition, using the Lab of Information Treatment, the unit works on topics related to information storage and diffusion.
Law
The Law School of UFMG has four main departments, which are devoted to the following areas: General Theory of Law (Jurisprudence), Legal History, Private Law and Civil Procedural Law, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedural Law, International Law, Conflict of Laws, Public Law, Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Economic Law, Tax Law, Labour Law amongst others. On 20 December 2012, the School of Law will celebrate its 120th anniversary, being one of the oldest Law Schools in Brazil after University of São Paulo (USP) and Universities of Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro.
Between 1892 – year of its foundation – and 1927 the Law School was an autonomous institution and congregated several important lawyers and politicians in national context. In the year of 1927, the Free Law Faculty of Minas Gerais (Faculdade Livre de Direito de Minas Gerais) joined the administrative framework of the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Since then, it is one of UFMG's main Schools and Research Centres.
Architecture
One of the research centers at the School of Architecture, which is divided into four departments, is the Graphic Laboratory for the Teaching of Architecture (Lagear), equipped with computer-assisted design programs. Among the research topics are Computer-Assisted Photogrametry, Computer-Assisted Photo-Documentation, Photorealistic Representations, as well as studies on accessibility (Architecture without barriers for disabled people).
Economics
Most research topics explored at the School of Economics (Face) are related to work done at the Center for Regional Development and Planning (Cedeplar), at the Center for Research and Graduate Studies in Business Administration (Cepead), and at the Research Institute in Economics, Business Administration, and Accounting (Ipead).
At Cedeplar, where 25 teachers have a doctoral degree and 10 have a master's degree, there is research on Demographics and on Economics, with projects on Fecundity, Historical Demographics and Labor, Agricultural and Industrial Economics, Economic History, Economics and Environment, and Privatizations. At Cepead, 11 teachers have a doctoral degree and eight have a master's. They study Sectors of Support for Decision Making, Human Behavior in Organizations, Performance and Financial Strategy in Organizations. With four teachers holding a doctoral degree and two holding a master's, the Ipead provides consultancy and calculates monthly rates of indices, such as price and rent variation.
Biological sciences
Six graduate programs and around 300 topics of research occupy 290 teachers at the Institute of Biological Sciences (ICB), 90% of whom holding doctoral, master's or post-baccalaureate degrees.
The laboratories of the institute's ten departments conduct research in Biology, some of them being national standards, such as the Center of Electronic Microscopy. ICB has developed a simple non-radioactive methodology for the study of DNA impressions and the American visceral leishmaniasis vaccine. Among the ICB topics of research responsible for the largest number of publications are those related to the development of new vaccines and medications – Biochemistry, Immunology, and Microbiology – to Genetics and to Ecology. The unit makes contributions to Botany, Zoology, Morphology, and Parasitology.
To assist researchers and teachers, ICB has four laboratory animal facilities with hundreds of guinea pigs kept in accordance to international principles of animal experimentation.
The university operates the 114 hectares (280 acres) Federal University of Minas Gerais Ecological Station on the Pampulha campus, used for various research projects including a master's course in Ecology Conservation and Wildlife Management.
Veterinary medicine
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Founded in 1932, the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) (Veterinary College of UFMG) completed 80 years in 2012, and has trained over 5,000 veterinarians. CVM conducts animal science and veterinary medicine education and research. In addition to Veterinary Medicine, CVM offers an undergraduate degree in Aquaculture. MSc and PhD degrees in Animal Science and Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Medical Residency, and Professional MSc are available in 19 areas of knowledge. The college is located in the Pampulha Campus and has four departments: Veterinary Clinic and Surgery (DCCV), Preventive Veterinary Medicine (DMVP), Technology and Inspection of Animal Products (DTIPOA) and Animal Science (DZOO). Two experimental farms and the Veterinary Hospital are available.
The five-year Veterinary Medicine course takes 120 students per year and over 95% of undergraduate students complete the course. Most faculty at teaching are full-time, permanent and have PhD degrees (more than 90%). About 1/3 of undergraduate students participate in research activities in 112 laboratories and produce around 250 academic research abstracts per year. More than 140 scientific papers are produced per year by faculty members.
Engineering
Around 70% of the 280 teachers at the School of Engineering work on 60 topics of research.
Most research work done in Engineering is related to technological development, with application in industry, funded by national and international agencies. By means of agreements and service contracts signed through the Christiano Otonni Foundation, the school makes contact with companies from the public and private sectors.
In Sanitary and Environmental Engineering, an Environmental Monitoring and Water Treatment Project has been run in collaboration with the German agency TGZ.
Three topics of research are pursued in Electric Engineering, monitored by the department's Research Center: high tension, which includes studies on protection against atmospheric discharges, power electronics, and control of industrial processes.
In the Department of Civil Engineering, research is carried out at the Laboratory of Structural Analysis, where structures submitted to very high pressure are evaluated. Work is being done on energy alternatives, mainly on photovoltaic energy (the transformation of sun light into energy) and solar collectors. The projects are supported by the Minas Gerais Energy Company (Cemig) and Eletrobrás.
At the Department of Chemical Engineering, there is research on liquid/liquid separation and on heat sensitive substances. At the Department of Mining Engineering, two of the most important research topics are mineral treatment and prospecting. The School of Engineering's largest department is Metallurgic Engineering, which has an X-ray lab and an electronic microscopy lab, among others. Research involves extractive metallurgy, physical metallurgy, which deals with material molding, and "Trefilação".
Still at the School of Engineering, there is the Center for Electronic Computation, linked to the Scientific Computation Lab.
Social sciences and philosophy
Six academic units conduct research in human sciences and applied social sciences. At the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences (FAFICH), 95% of its near 250 lecturers from its seven departments have doctoral degrees and are doing research. At the Department of Sociology, researches focus mainly on urban and industrial sociology, quantitative/systems sociology, and sociology of culture. At the Department of History, the characteristic topics are oral, political, and economic history. The Department of Political Sciences works mostly with public and administrative policies, Brazilian and international politics, electoral behavior, and political theory. At the Department of Philosophy, most works focus on the relationship between philosophy and psychoanalysis, Marxism, social and political philosophy, esthetics, art philosophy, epistemology and philosophy of science, and logic. The Department of Philosophy's the Esthetics Laboratory does research and documentation work on Esthetics and Art and Civilization History.
Psychology
The Department of Psychology is the largest of the Faculty of Philosophy and Human Sciences, and holds the position of one of the best in Brazil due to undergraduate teaching outputs. The UFMG Department of Psychology administers two post-graduate programs awarding titles of master's and doctoral degrees: one is the Psychology Graduate Program, and the other one is the Cognition and Behavior Graduate Program.
Education
The Faculty of Education (FAE) has three departments, which carry out interdisciplinary activities with other university sectors. The Center for Literacy, Reading, and Writing (Ceale), which develops projects on child and adult literacy, has been the major source of publication at FAE. The Center for Mathematics and Science Teaching in Minas Gerais (Cecimig) studies the learning processes in the area and offers permanent courses for primary and secondary teachers.
Medical sciences
The UFMG Faculty of Medicine is one of the founding academic units and receives massive investments from the Union's (Federal Government) Executive Power Ministry of Health, leading to an important research output in the Brazilian scientific scenario. The UFMG School of Medicine's twelve departments research more than 100 topics, using the infrastructure of the Hospital das Clínicas and its 14 labs. Around 60% of the unit's more than 470 teachers hold a master's or a doctoral degree, and most of them take part in scientific production.
A large part of the research stems from the 12 medicine post graduate programs offered by UFMG. Among the topics are infectious and parasitic diseases, hematology and oncology, gastroenterology and digestive tract surgery, ophthalmology, and endocrinology. There are also publications on pathology, surgery, ambulatory surgery, infectious and parasitic diseases, spider and snake poisons, transplants, toxicology, tropical medicine, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, fetal medicine, neurosurgery, oncology, gynecology and obstetrics, and preventive and social medicine.
Nursing
More than half the 82 teachers of the School of Nursing, most of whom have master's and doctoral degrees, are involved in projects that are largely interdisciplinary.
Distributed among the unit's three departments, they work at the university hospitals and in the public health system. Some of their research topics are education and the nursing curriculum, transmitted diseases, work force, workers' health quality, and rites of death in senior citizens' memories.
Dentistry
Many of the School of Dentistry's 100 teachers, one-fifth of whom hold a master's or doctoral degree, does research. Research includes bio-safety in dental practice, dental trauma, social representation of health and mouth disease, orthodontics for deciduous and permanent teeth, surgery, periodontal disease and cyst, and prevention and epidemiology of cavities and other diseases.
Pharmacy
The Faculty of Pharmacy, which has four departments, does mostly experimental research. Of the unit's more than 70 teachers, about 35% hold a doctoral degree and approximately the same percentage have a master's degree. Research includes the development of new substances and medicines at the school's laboratories, mainly the Labs of Medicines and of Pharmacognosis and Plant Chemistry.
The Department of Food does research on biotechnology (quality control and food science and technology). The Department of Clinical Analyses has work on parasitology and applied toxicology, as well as on clinical bio-chemistry.
Physical education
The School of Physical Education investigates about 20 research topics. At the two departments linked to the Physical Education program, nearly half the 35 teachers do research, most of which is done in the Labs of Exercise Physiology and of Sport Psychology. Research includes studies of the behavior of the human organism, athlete conditioning, prevention of temperature accidents during exercises, effects of caffeine on the body, and neuroendocrinologic response to exercise. In the Department of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, there are projects related to neuropediatrics and to physiotherapy in geriatrics. The department's researchers work at the Hospital das Clínicas and at the Lab of Therapeutic Gymnastics, which belongs to the school.
