Université Paris-Saclay travels to Brazil to strengthen and develop its partnerships
From 30 November to 9 December 2024, a delegation from Université Paris-Saclay travelled to Brazil to strengthen the university’s existing links with Brazilian universities and national research bodies and develop new opportunities for collaboration. The visit was led by Delphine Placidi-Frot, the university's Vice-President for International and European Relations, who was accompanied by nine representatives from the Biosphera, Life Sciences & Health, Chemistry, Public Health, Economics & Management and Geosciences Graduate Schools, as well as members of the university's Department for International and European Relations.
The trip was part of a broader internal university working group dedicated to relations with higher education and research institutions in Brazil, which has established an inventory of existing collaborations and identified strategic partners and priority fields, such as environmental sciences, health, humanities and social sciences. Brazil is currently the top non-European country with which Université Paris-Saclay has the most cooperation agreements. The mission was also aligned with national priorities, following on from the France-Brazil Joint Committee (COMIX) held in Manaus in September 2024, which reflects the importance of higher education and research in the strategic partnership between the two countries.
The delegation first travelled to São Paulo, where it met with top-level representatives from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo State University (UNESP), the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the University of São Paulo (USP), the Institut Pasteur de São Paulo (IP-SP), the IRC and the CNRS South America Office. In Rio de Janeiro, the delegation visited the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ), the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the Oswaldo-Cruz Institute (Fiocruz, the Brazilian scientific institution for research and development in biological sciences ). The mission ended with discussions at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte.
The meetings were a great success, consolidating existing cooperation in education and research, establishing new contacts and launching ambitious cooperation projects. These include the negotiation of a strategic agreement with the University of São Paulo, including the implementation of a joint seed fund designed to finance four to eight training or research projects per year, as well as the official request made by the University of São Paulo to join the EUGLOH European university alliance, of which Université Paris-Saclay is a founding member and coordinator.
2025 will be the official year for France-Brazil, and, at Université Paris-Saclay, the start of the year will be marked by the submission of an Erasmus+ project for international credit mobility in science and pharmacy with the State University of Campinas and the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). This should lead to the signing of new exchange agreements, the development of student and academic mobility, and the creation of new training and research collaborations with the Brazilian partners of Université Paris-Saclay.