MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil and UK intensify scientific research cooperation and exchanges

The British Science and Innovation Network is hosting the Brazilian delegation (Pic. D. Arruda)

The British Science and Innovation Network and the Confederation of Brazilian Funding Agencies (Confap) have taken nine funding agencies to the United Kingdom for a week long of meetings with their counterparts and other scientific organizations and universities.

The group, which has research funding agencies from all Brazilian regions (Araucaria, Facepe, Fapeam, Fapeg, Fapemig, Fapema, Faperj, Fapesb and Fapesc), will have a busy agenda. Among the highlights of the mission is a meeting with Research Councils UK, an institution equivalent to Confap, which will present the UK’s solid scientific research financing mechanism, in addition to discussions around possibilities for cooperation with Brazil.

“Brazil and the United Kingdom are great partners in the area of scientific research,” says Caroline Cowan, Director of Science and Innovation at the British Embassy in Brasilia. “The mission will be another opportunity to deepen and to create new collaborative projects between the two countries,” she adds.

The agencies will also meet with Universities UK, institution that represents British universities and coordinates the Science without Borders¹ program in the UK.

Alan Charlton, former British Ambassador in Brazil, will open the meeting, which aims at promoting opportunities for Brazilian students who choose the United Kingdom as a destination for study and research in the area of low-carbon energy, in which the British have great expertise.

“The Science without Borders program is a great way to increase scientific cooperation between Brazil and the United Kingdom. The fact that more and more Brazilian students are going to British universities is a very rich opportunity for the exchange of knowledge between the two countries and for training future researchers, “says Cowan.

The delegation will also meet with representatives of 17 universities, when they will discuss the possibility of new agreements and research cooperation.

Science without Borders program is an initiative of the Brazilian Government intended to give to more than 100,000 Brazilian students the chance to study in foreign universities up to 2015. The United Kingdom has already received 3,000 students and expects a total of 10,000 by the end of the program.