FAPESP and the United Kingdom increase scientific cooperation

During an event at FAPESP’s headquarters, officials renewed an agreement with Research Councils UK through 2015 and established a partnership with the University of East Anglia

By Fábio de Castro

Agência FAPESP – On September 26, 2012, FAPESP renewed its cooperation agreement with Research Councils United Kingdom (RCUK), an agreement originally forged in 2009. FAPESP has also formed a partnership with the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and has extended its existing agreement with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to include collaborative research on the post-doctorate level.

The signing of the agreements occurred during the seminar “Scientific Partnerships Brazil-United Kingdom: Funding opportunities for research and innovation,” whose programming included a debate among the vice-chancellors of eight British universities, the objective of which was to discuss the current level of cooperation between the two countries.

In addition to announcing the agreements between the Brazilian and British institutions, FAPESP also announced a joint call for proposals with York University during this meeting.

Eduardo Moacyr Krieger, vice-president of FAPESP; Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, the foundation’s scientific director; David Willetts, Minister of State Universities and Science; Alan Charlton, the U.K. ambassador to Brazil; and Paul Boyle, international leader of RCUK, all helped open the seminar.

According to Boyle, the renewal of this agreement involves all seven British research councils and seeks to increase existing cooperation among scientists from the two countries by funding projects in all areas of knowledge.

“The results were very good, and we decided to prolong the agreement until at least 2015. To date, we have had significant interest among researchers, particularly in areas such as biology and environmental science. This time, we believe that the number of collaborations will increase in another area of high demand, the medical sciences. We also had funding for projects in areas such as biochemistry, geosciences, physiology, genetics and morphology,” said Boyle to Agência FAPESP.

The agreement with RCUK has resulted in joint calls for proposals between FAPESP and the Arts and Humanities Council, the Biotechnology and Biology Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

“The model of the agreement was very innovative because it allows scientists from institutions in São Paulo and the United Kingdom to submit proposals for joint research through a unified analysis and decision process. The RCUK receives and evaluates the collaborative research proposals of eligible institutions. The partners nominated by FAPESP participate in the peer review process and decision making,” explained Boyle.

All research proposals selected in the first FAPESP/RCUK call continue to be active. The proposals submitted in the second call with NERC for the areas of Biodiversity Processes and Ecosystems in Tropical Forest Modified by Humans are currently under analysis.

The agreement with RCUK complements the various limited agreements that FAPESP has with British universities. “Many of the good projects begin on smaller funding scales under the auspices of specific agreements between FAPESP and British universities. I think these agreements offer a very special modality for initial projects that need seed capital. Once the projects mature and expand, they can apply for more funding under the auspices of FAPESP’s agreements with the RCUK, allowing for studies with greater breadth,” commented Boyle.

New agreements

According to Brito Cruz, the agreements created or extended during the seminar broadened the foundation’s scientific cooperation with British institutions. “We now have 42 projects underway that are funded by FAPESP in partnership with a British organization – a university, research council or company,” he said.

FAPESP has agreements with eight other higher education or research institutions in the UK: the Universities of London, Edinburgh, Bangor, Nottingham, Southampton, Surrey, York and King’s College. Additionally, FAPESP recently signed an agreement with BP Biofuels, and during the meetings on September 26, FAPESP also signed a letter of intention with oil and gas company BG Brasil concerning cooperation with the development of research on energy.

The agreement with ESRC, also signed during the seminar, envisages research that brings together two doctoral students and their mentors to work on international projects in the areas of Economics and Social Sciences. This collaboration will involve sharing information on the mechanisms of financing and exchange among researchers and organizing scientific meetings, workshops and symposiums.

“The agreement with the University of East Anglia, on the other hand, has the objective of supporting research in every area of knowledge,” said Brito Cruz.

The agreement envisages the possible participation of other institutions that already have partnerships with the university and are located in Research Park (NRP), where the majority of the East Anglia’s research activities are concentrated.

During the seminar, Joanna Newman, director of the UK Higher Education International Unit, which is associated with Universities UK (UUK) – an organization that represents all British universities – affirmed that the relationships between UK research institutions and Brazil have increased significantly in recent years. This growth occurs not only in the calls related to “exact sciences” but also in the calls related to human and social sciences.

“These relationships are extremely important for British universities because we have a tradition of receiving foreign students, but we have few programs that involve sending British students abroad. The agreements with FAPESP are contributing significantly to this. The agreement gives good prospects for British students to collaborate in long-term research partnerships,” she affirmed.

Brazil-UK Partnerships

Eric Thomas, vice-chancellor of the University of Bristol, rates the scientific collaboration between the Brazilian and British institutions positively. According to Thomas, the priority from now on is planning the sustainability of successful initiatives over the medium to long term.

“We are very excited about the current dynamism of the partnerships, but we now need to guarantee that these cooperation lines continue for a long time, preferably for many decades. I believe that the most efficient manner to make these partnerships more sustainable is involving industry, and embarking on projects that really matter for other economic sectors,” explained Thomas.

According to Don Nutbeam, vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton, some areas of ocean sciences are highly relevant for the development of partnerships between Brazil and the United Kingdom.

“The University of Southampton is the main British center of oceanography and is a reference in marine biology. We are all interested in structuring joint research with Brazilian universities because in addition to having vast ocean areas, Brazil is now dealing with growing challenges related to offshore oil and gas exploration, given the potential impact on marine ecosystems,” he said.

Louise Richardson, vice-chancellor at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland), affirmed that international relations are crucial for the institution, where 45% of the students come from outside the U.K. and 35% outside the European Community.

“We have had cooperation with Brazil for many decades, but we want to make them systematic. Currently, cooperation tends to be limited to individual exchanges, especially in chemistry and technology. FAPESP offers infrastructure for these partnerships to develop in a more perennial and systematic manner,” she highlighted.

Brian Cantor, vice-chancellor at the University of York, affirmed that the institution, because it is young by British standards – founded in 1963 – is especially focused on developing opportunities for international cooperation.

“The partnership that we have established with FAPESP will open an important opportunity for our students to come to Brazil, and it creates new academic, scientific and economic possibilities. Two of our greatest lines of activity currently are especially interesting for the development of joint projects with Brazil: biofuels and biotechnology for agricultural products with non-food uses,” he said.

The vice-chancellors Colin Riodarn, from the Cardiff University; Colin Bailey, of the University of Manchester; Martin Bean, of Open University; and Peter Mills, of Harper Adams University, also participated in the debate.