The implementation of a public university had long been a dream of the population of Campos dos Goytacazes (RJ). A mobilization of organized society managed to include an amendment in the 1989 State Constitution, envisioning the creation of the State University of North Fluminense. This movement involved various entities, associations, and political leaders. They needed at least 3,000 signatures, but the organizers collected 4,141, not counting thousands of unqualified signatures.
According to Article 49 of the Transitional Provisions of the Fluminense Constitution, the university envisioned by successive generations of Campistas should also be present in the municipalities of Itaocara (RJ), Itaperuna (RJ), and Santo Antônio de Pádua (RJ). In the early 1990s, the significant challenge for the pro-UENF popular movement was to meet the legal deadline for the creation of the university, lest the constitutional article become obsolete.
This deadline was set to expire in 1990. After intense collective efforts to persuade the authorities, the law establishing UENF was finally approved by the State Assembly and sanctioned by then-Governor Moreira Franco on 08/11/90. Law 1,740 authorized the Executive Branch to create the State University of North Fluminense – UENF, headquartered in Campos dos Goytacazes. On 27/02/91, Decree 16,357 created UENF and approved its Statute.
With the election of Leonel Brizola as the governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro and his inauguration in 1991, the UENF project took on a new direction. Keeping a campaign promise made in Campos (RJ), Leonel Brizola set in motion the implementation of UENF, assigning Professor Darcy Ribeiro the task of designing the model and overseeing the implementation. Darcy was the founder and the first rector of the University of Brasília (UnB) and the author of projects to establish or reform universities in Costa Rica, Algeria, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Peru.
When he received the mission to establish UENF, Darcy set himself the challenge of making the new university his best project. He conceived an innovative model where departments, which at UnB had already represented an advancement by replacing traditional chairs, would give way to thematic and multidisciplinary laboratories as the core of academic life. He surrounded himself with renowned thinkers and researchers to develop the UENF project and presented it as the 'University of the Third Millennium.' He foresaw the presence of UENF in Macaé (RJ), where the Laboratories of Engineering and Oil Exploration (Lenep) and Meteorology (Lamet) would be established.
The process of implementing UENF began in earnest on December 23, 1991, when Decree No. 17,206 established the Academic Implementation Committee alongside the Extraordinary Secretariat of Special Programs. On 10/12/1992, Law No. 2,043/92, authored by Deputy Fernando Leite Fernandes, established the Northern Fluminense State Foundation, with the mission to maintain and develop the State University of North Fluminense and to establish and enhance the Northern Fluminense High Technology Park.
The marks of originality and audacity that Darcy instilled in his last major university project became visible. UENF was the first Brazilian university where all professors held a Ph.D. The emphasis on research and postgraduate studies, unparalleled in the history of Brazilian universities, makes UENF a university for training scientists.
Due to the highest percentage of former students participating in Scientific Initiation completing master's and doctoral courses, UENF was awarded the 2003 CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) Scientific Initiation Highlight Award. According to the regulations, the winning institution must wait for a period before competing for the award again. As soon as UENF competed again in 2009, it was once again awarded.
