About the organizers of the second French-Brazilian Symposium on Biosciences
The second FrenchBrazilian Symposium on Biosciences was held at Fiocruz – Rio de Janeiro on March 27th, 2014.
EURAXESS Brazil interviewed the organizing committee, composed of
- Diego Aguiar
- Gisele Amorim
- Juliana Coelho Aguiar
- Leticia Lery
- Marcel Cunha
- Paulo Ricardo Batista.
They accepted to share their view on mobility and to present the main outcomes of the event.
Confirming EURAXESS’ motto “Researchers in motion / Researchers’ emotion”, the organizers emphasized the fundamental role of personal and logistic aspects in the decision of being mobile.
Interview
You organized the second French-Brazilian Symposium on Biosciences last month at Fiocruz in Rio de Janeiro. How did the idea came up?
The idea for the first meeting came up when we realized the noticeable amount of Brazilian scientists in France, performing research on Biosciences and also a large number of French-Brazilian collaborations already going on. With that in mind, our goal was to promote a French-Brazilian Symposium on Biosciences to stimulate the interaction between French and Brazilian groups, to strengthen and enrich the ongoing collaborations, to encourage the establishment of new collaborative projects and discuss specific funding opportunities for FrenchBrazilian consortia.
All of you carried out research in France. What were the benefits of mobility on your career?
It is very important to look at a biological question from several points of view, in order to get a better representation of your model system. The scientific work in France brought many benefits to our careers. We learned and shared new techniques, enriched our knowledge with experts from our field of study; and established important new partnerships for the future. Working in France was a great opportunity to learn a different way of doing science. Moreover, living in France brought us cultural knowledge and improved our French language abilities.
Having conducted research both in Brazil and in Europe, what are the best aspects of either research community?
In France, the scientific institutions are significantly internationalized, meaning that our colleagues and co-workers had different backgrounds and thoughts, which was great to improve our scientific discussions and critical thinking. Seminars and conferences given by Nobel laureates and other very important researchers were quite frequent. Another good aspect that called our attention in France, is that a doctoral student is ensured by the state as an employee, having contractual rights such as health insurance and vacations. We observe that it is dignifying and important for the PhD students to deal more responsibly with their obligations.
In Brazil, the research community is expanding each day, and the young researchers are now able to be a part of this. The current investment on research is higher than before, so, positions, fellowships and calls for projects are fuelling careers on scientific fields.
How important is the scientific cooperation between these two regions?
The development of science is only possible if expertise and results are shared. Historically, France and Brazil have been sharing science since Santos Dumont built the 14 Bis aircraft in France. It is also true that France has always been scientifically and culturally attractive for Brazilians. The pioneers of Brazilian science started, sometimes at their own expenses, to live in France to carry out research and that yield important results and leading more Brazilian researchers to look for a scientific experience in France. More recently, and specially due to programs that encourage and sponsor research and mobility of researchers such as CAPES-COFECUB program, collaborations became more frequent between French and Brazilian groups. We hope that exchanges become more and more frequent, equally bilateral and stronger.
In your opinion, what could be done to further enhance international scientific cooperation and, most importantly, the mobility of international researchers?
This is an important and current issue we’ve had the chance to discuss during the 1st and 2nd br.BIO.fr. Since research is majorly funded y government agencies, we’ve noticed that to enhance international cooperation it is important to finance work and projects with this cooperative perspective, and more, with close contact between funding agencies from every country involved, as well as the scientists. This is not largely done, but successful models were already established or are being applied in program such as CAPES-COFECUB, ANR-FAPESP and FAPERJ- INRIA, and this is important for the cooperative research to receive funds and be conducted in both countries. The mobility of the researchers, who will execute those projects, is also a crucial aspect. In this case, people not only need financial resources, but they need support for the practical issues they might encounter upon arrival on a different country to work. It is important to have information and support about VISA, local obligations, family life, and also, science-related aspects beyond the bench work, such as intellectual property rights and career opportunities.
What were the main conclusions of the event?
The event was the right forum to discuss collaborations between France and Brazil that have been occurring successfully for over a decade, and to observe newly formed partnerships and the important results that they had. The high number of requests from French and Brazilian researchers to present their work during the event astonished us and reflects how the scientific link between France and Brazil is strong and extensive. Funding agencies of both countries participated in both events. They are aware of the importance of French-Brazilian cooperation and ways of funding specifically bilateral projects with good potential are being discussed. Also, and veryi mportant, we noticed a growing interest of young investigators, undergraduate or graduate students, to go abroad to exchange expertise and learn.
Attachment: meet_the_researcher_-_brbiofr.pdf