- Over the past decades, researchers in computational modeling in conjunction with medical professionals started to develop and apply, in an increasingly frequent and intensive manner, tools based on computational models within different areas of medical practice. As a result, computational models have evolved significantly with respect to their capability to describe and predict the most important phenomena that govern the interaction between physiological systems of the human body, both in normal conditions and in situations altered by disease and/or human intervention (for example, surgery).

- Brazil was not absent during these developments. On the contrary, and almost simultaneously with renowned groups from abroad, from 1998 onwards, a vigorous program of Research and Development (R&D) in the field of predictive medicine through scientific computing was started at the LNCC/MCTI (www.lncc.br), led by researchers at the HeMoLab laboratory (http://hemolab.lncc.br/). This leadership at national, regional and international level led these researchers, together with researchers from laboratories LVCRV, ACiMA (http://acima.lncc.br/), ComCiDis (http://comcidis.lncc.br/) and MARTIN (http://martin.lncc.br/), all based at the Department of Scientific Computing (DSC) from the LNCC, to organize and coordinate the MACC-Rio in 2007. A statewide network was created, incorporating the most important institutions of R & D in engineering, computing and medicine in the State of Rio de Janeiro. In a similar manner, they organized a cooperative (and integrated) network of R&D and Human Resources Development (HRD) at a national level, formed by 25 Associate Laboratories based in 11 Brazilian states, with international coverage across 10 collaborating laboratories in Argentina, United States, Canada, England, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland. This coordinated action culminated in the establishment of the National Institute of Science and Technology in Medicine Assisted by Scientific Computing (, INCT-MACC in Portuguese, http://macc.lncc.br/) approved by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) (CNPq) in November 2008 and starting operations in September, 2009.

- The Technical-Scientific Program of the INCT-MACC (TSP-MACC) for the new period 2015-2021 is an answer to all the requirements and fundamental aspects described above, hence having the following general goals...