FAPESP Week London highlights scientific cooperation between Brazil and Europe

Symposium at the Royal Society opens on September 25th with live webcast.

Agência FAPESP – Some of the most recent advances in science and the development of new technology obtained by researchers in Brazil and Europe over the last few years will be the topics of debates during FAPESP Week London, to be held from September 25 to 27 at The Royal Society, London. Live webcast can be seen at www.fapesp.br/week2013/london.

Sponsored and coordinated by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the British Council and The Royal Society, the symposium will help broad the already significant existing bilateral partnerships in science among Brazil and European countries.

The FAPESP Week London conference will explore international scientific cooperation between Brazil and its European partners in the fields of biodiversity, climate change, health sciences, bio-energy and nanotechnology. Topics such as genomics, biofuels and science culture will be also subject of presentations and discussions.

Among Brazilian researchers in the event are Carlos Alfredo Joly (University of Campinas), Paulo Eduardo Netto Artaxo, Lisete Compagno Michelini, Maria Immacolata Vassallo de Lopes and Siu Mui Tsai (University of São Paulo), Luciana Vanni Gatti (Nuclear and Energy Research Institute), and E. A. Thoroh de Souza (Mackenzie University).

Researchers from different institutions in Europe, as Martyn Poliakoff (Royal Society), Peter Olesen (Danish Council for Strategic Research), Georgina Mace and Jeremy Woods (The Imperial College London), Gordon McFiggans (University of Manchester), and Philip Macnaghten (Durham University) will also participate in the symposium.

Good time to partnerships

FAPESP has a state-sponsored annual budget of around US$ 500 million, funding Brazilian and international scientists working with universities and research institutions in the State of São Paulo. The state is responsible for around 50% of the scientific articles published yearly, as well 45% of doctoral level scientists graduating yearly in Brazil.

“It’s time for FAPESP to punch our weight in international circles, and we’re encouraging European researchers to see that a spell working with universities in Brazil can be a great career-boosting opportunity,” said Celso Lafer, FAPESP’s President. “Brazil is consolidating its BRIC status by evolving into one of the world’s leading knowledge-based economies – and we’re open to do research business with European universities and industry.”

FAPESP has bilateral accords with all seven UK Research Councils and the British Council, as well as ties with several UK universities. It also has links to leading European research funding agencies, many of whose representatives will attend the London conference.

As well as the keynote speech from Science Minister David Willetts, who visited the FAPESP headquarters in São Paulo in September 2012 during Prime Minister David Cameron’s trip to Brazil, case studies in cooperation will be presented by senior FAPESP officials, by British policymakers and their counterparts from several top European research funding councils.

“Our goal is to display São Paulo as a global hub of high-impact, multidisciplinary science, and, to this end, we are attracting world quality researchers and visiting professors,” said Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, FAPESP’s Scientific Director.

“Our universities are rising rapidly up the world rankings, while we're seeing a big increase in the quality and quantity of impactful publications authored by Brazilian scientists. We might be near a tipping-point in global recognition of the impact of the leading-edge science now being made in Brazil”, said Brito Cruz.

Collaborative Research

To achieve this goal, FAPESP is now focusing US$680 million of long-term firepower on 17 centres known as RIDCs (Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers). In May 2013, FAPESP earmarked US$370 million of its own multi-year funding to these centres, and secured commitments worth another US$310 million from São Paulo’s six state-run universities.

There will be reports on high-profile investigations from Brazilian and UK senior research scientists, including the Royal Society’s foreign secretary and vice-president, Professor Martyn Poliakoff.

“We are delighted that FAPESP Week will be taking place at Royal Society this year. It is a fantastic opportunity to promote the existing links between UK and Brazilian science and to help foster new collaborative work,” said Poliakoff, who visited Brazil in June 2013. He added: “As 2013 is the Royal Society’s Year of Science and Industry, we will also be taking advantage of FAPESP Week to discuss issues surrounding collaboration between academia and industry and what these mean for science in both our countries.”

FAPESP Week London is part of a global program promoting Brazilian science; in 2012, similar events were held in the US, Canada and Spain, while earlier in 2013 a conference was held in Tokyo and is expected to happen also in Beijing, China, in April 2014.

FAPESP currently finances 18,000 projects in all areas of knowledge. Over five decades it has financed 96,000 research projects and 112,000 fellowships. The Foundation is financed through its constitutional right to a share of São Paulo’s state tax receipts.

In parallel to the event, the Brazilian embassy will host a reception to launch the exhibition Brazilian Nature – Mystery and Destiny, a pictorial profile of the journeys of discovery through the backlands to the Amazon forest, made by 19^th century naturalist pioneers.