The seventh edition of Brain Week, held annually by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) through the Brain Institute (ICe), took place from March 11 to 16, with the theme “Education transforms”. In 2018 the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) supported the event, whose main objectives are to bring science closer to people and show how essential education is in the development of society. Several actions were promoted in different parts of Natal and in cities in the interior of Rio Grande do Norte. One of the activities reached the Quilombola Community of Capoeiras, in Macaíba (RN), where the ISD is developing the Belly Project since 2015.

Second Eduardo Sequerra, coordinator of outreach activities at ICe, Brain Week was created with the aim of showing society what is being done in the academic environment, also trying to reach people with difficulty accessing information. He also highlights the importance of actions to internalize neuroscience, which took outreach activities to other cities in RN.

The researcher of the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience (IIN-ELS/ISD), Andre Salles, states that during the event there was an emphasis on examples that demonstrated how the world becomes beautiful through the eyes of science and how it is present in everyday life and in everyone's lives. “During this Brain Week we had the opportunity to present some basic concepts of neuroscience to elementary and high school students in a fun and relaxed way, with the intention of removing the stigma that science is boring. Seeing children learning and having fun was really exciting”, highlights Salles.