The Rio de Janeiro City Hall, through the Municipal Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation (SMCT) and the Municipal Secretariat of Health (SMS), is launching the Hub Rio.IA Saúde, at the Invest.Rio booth at Web Summit 2026, this Wednesday (June 10th), at 2 pm. The program will connect artificial intelligence startups to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), federal university hospitals of the HU Brasil network, and the health economic complex, which encompasses all industries in the segment, to develop and validate technological solutions within the Unified Health System (SUS).
The Rio.IA Hub will operate continuously in applied research, events, training, consulting, and support for the development of public policies and business strategies, using open innovation programs as instruments for sectoral activation. The Hub is the result of a technical and financial cooperation agreement signed between ABDI, the City Hall of Rio de Janeiro, and PUC-Rio. The launch will take place at the Invest.Rio booth.
The program will be run by the ECOA Institute at PUC-Rio. The goal is to develop AI solutions through startups, in mandatory partnership with industries in the healthcare sector, with clinical and scientific validation conducted by leading public institutions, generating jobs and strengthening the innovation ecosystem.
The tests will be conducted at SMS facilities, which offer the environment and equipment necessary to foster technology applied to public health services. Developers will also have access to the Health Data Lake, the SMS database.
The resources to be developed, and which will be applied directly to the SUS (Brazilian Unified Health System), will follow the Matrix of Productive and Technological Challenges in Health (Ordinance GM/MS No. 2.261/2023) of the Ministry of Health, ensuring that each project is created based on a real and priority need of the SUS, improving efficiency through artificial intelligence. In addition to the Ministry of Health, the program has the support of Fiocruz, HU Brasil (Ebserh), FIRJAN, and the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro (ACRJ). The first call for proposals will be launched during FISWeek 2026, the largest health forum in Latin America, held annually in Rio de Janeiro.
– Rio.IA Saúde represents the convergence of a clear political decision with the densest scientific infrastructure in the country. Rio de Janeiro has Fiocruz, federal university hospitals, PUC-Rio, and a health industry with real installed capacity. What was missing was a permanent mechanism to transform this potential into products and solutions within the SUS (Brazilian Public Health System). That is what we are building — and we are doing this in direct alignment with the New Industry Brazil initiative and the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan. Rio is not just on the map of innovation in health: it is leading it — says Gabriel Medina, Municipal Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation.
– The Rio.IA Health initiative is fundamental for updating and improving the resources available to the Unified Health System (SUS). The Municipal Health Secretariat has a robust network, a state-of-the-art information bank, and fully equipped units for the development of technological solutions, which will provide the necessary support to developers. The Rio.IA Hub puts the best and most modern resources at the service of the population and public health, reaffirming our tradition of providing permanent support to research and innovation – says the Municipal Health Secretary, Rodrigo Prado.
Rio.IA Health is the first theme of the Rio.IA Hub, dedicated to the Economic-Industrial Complex of Health (CEIS), and arises in convergence with three structuring instruments of federal policy: The New Industry Brazil — Mission 2 (resilient CEIS to reduce vulnerabilities in the SUS and expand access to health, with R$ 300 billion in planned industrial mobilization); the National Strategy for the Development of CEIS (Decree No. 11.715/2023), with six active structuring programs, among which the PDIL, PDP, and PPDN will function as mechanisms for scaling validated solutions; and the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan 2024–2028 (PBIA), with R$ 23,03 billion coordinated by the MCTI and alignment of the axes of AI for improving public services and AI for business innovation applied to health.
It is worth highlighting that Rio de Janeiro is one of the states with the highest number of scientific and technological health institutions in the country. Fiocruz is one example of success. The Foundation recently inaugurated the new headquarters of its Center for Technological Development in Health (CDTS), with a federal investment of R$ 405 million, which brings together production, research and innovation units in the city, including Bio-Manguinhos, Farmanguinhos and the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectology. This ecosystem is complemented by UFRJ, UERJ, UFF, INCA, PUC-Rio and the federal university hospitals of the HU Brasil network.
The Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), linked to the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC), will act as a strategic partner and executive arm of the New Industry Brazil (NIB), giving the program a direct connection with federal industrial policy. AWS (Amazon Web Services) and AI Cube, a company specializing in agentic artificial intelligence and among the top 10 startups in the world accelerated by Web Summit, will be the strategic sponsors of the first cycle, with an investment of R$ 2 million. In addition to financial resources, the company will provide its proprietary platform of distributed intelligence networks, placing the program at the technological forefront of AI applied to health.
