Sarah, you are representing RBI in Brazil. Could you tell us a little bit more about RBI objectives and activities?
Research Brazil Ireland (RBI) is a consortium of eleven higher education and research institutes from Ireland*. The idea behind the initiative was to support the formation of new scientific collaborations between Brazil and Ireland, while supporting exisiting collaborations.
Fostering links between industry and academia is another objective of RBI; this is something that Ireland is particularly strong at. Academic staff with long track records in industry, and courses with built-in internships add to Ireland’s progess in this area. Added to this are incentives, both financial and in the form of mentoring, provided by Irish state agencies like Enterprise Ireland and Industrial Development Authority, to help forge links between academia and industry.
Priority thematic areas were identified from an analysis of priority research areas common to Brazil and Ireland.
RBI provides mobility funding and support for researchers to travel between Brazil and Ireland, to develop research ideas, with the hope that researchers on either side of the Atlantic can access funding for research projects in Brazil and in Europe, under the Horizon 2020 programme, which has a budget of nearly EUR 80 billion. The RBI programme is administered by Dublin City University in Ireland, with a local office that I manage in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Why Brazil? Is there any similar structure in another country outside Europe?
Research Brazil Ireland was born from a Science Foundation Ireland programme called ISCA (International Strategic Cooperation Award), created to support new and existing research-based collaborations between Ireland’s higher education insitutions, and partner insitutions in Brazil, China, India and Japan. Each ISCA progamme is led by an Irish university, with Dublin City University taking the lead on ISCA Brazil, and forming RBI.
RBI organised the “1st Brazil-Ireland Science Week”, held in Dublin, 23-26 February 2015. What were the aims and outcomes of the conference?
The event “Collaborative Research for a Better Future” aimed at “bringing together researchers, higher education institutions, funding agencies, policy decision makers and industry leaders” to discuss how to strengthen existing links between Ireland and Brazil and develop future collaborations.
Mark Ferguson, director general of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) signed memorandums of agreement with FAPERJ, and Confap, adding to existing agreements between SFI and FAPESP, and with federal funders CAPES and CNPq.
During the opening ceremony, Brazilian Ambassador to Ireland, HE Afonso José Sena Cardoso, said the conference marked a “milestone” in relations between Brazil and Ireland. Another recent milestone has been the formation of a Brazil-Ireland parliamentary group in Brazil.
EURAXESS Ireland sponsored the poster competition for PhD students who work within a Brazil-Ireland collaboration. Manager Jennifer Cleary outlined to delegates the free services available to researchers and their families, both in Ireland
and in Brazil .
Brazil-Ireland Science Week was an fantastic opportunity to deepen existing relationships. A research pitch and network session held during the conference allowed for the identification of new partnership possibilities, relevant in a constantly evolving global landscape.
One full day of the conference was dedicated to an exploration of the industryacademia relationship; with guest speakers sharing experience on best practices, from both Ireland and Brazil. Irish graduates are recognised as being some of the most highly qualified in Europe, and Irish universities have been extremely successful in recent years entering into the innovation space. Speakers spoke of the Irish experience in making this happen.
Industry representatives from IBM and Embraer shared experiences from either side of the Atlantic on innovation, bringing research to market, and case studies of successful industry-academic relationships were shared.
Could you give us a short overview of the existing Brazil-Ireland research cooperation?
In addition to several individual collaborations, 13 working groups have been formed under the RBI programme, with at least two Brazilian partners institutes, working with at least two of their Irish counterparts.
Among the active RBI collaborations, one working group is developing a project in BioAnalytical Sciences, which counts on the participation of researchers from Brazil-based INCTBio, UFABC, Unicamp, USP, UFMG, UFRGS, as well as Irish partners Dublin City University (DCU), and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI). A working group in the area of Information & Communication Technology has Brazilian collaborators from Inatel, URFJ, USP, Unicamp, PUC Rio, UFRGS, UnB, with Waterford Institute of Technology. While, another group is investigating Future Wireless Technologies, with collaborations from Trinity College Dublin, Maynooth University, Waterford Institute of Technology, and Brazilian partners UFPR, CPqD, UnB, and UFRJ. Looking at Web of Science, figures show that citations in scientific publications, with Brazil-Irleand linkages have nearly doubled since RBI began and reached almost 9,000 in 2014. The number of joint publications between Irish and Brazilian researchers has been growing solidly too. In 1996, there were only around 10 publications arising from Brazil-Irleand collaborations. By 2014, this number was approaching 300.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for increased cooperation between both countries?
There are opportunities for cooperations across the whole spectrum of thematic areas, as identified by RBI. Ireland is a strong player in the Blue Growth area, for example, and national policy dictates that this area is getting specific attention for growth currently. Ireland is a global leader in immunology, dairy, nano-technology, and bio-medicine. It is difficult to pinpoint specific areas, as Ireland punches way above its weight, and leads the ranks in several areas. The fact that the Irish and Brazilian cultures are very similar helps to cement the personal relationships needed to begin collaborative relationships, especially when overcoming certain bureacratic barriers, on either side.
Ireland receives many Brazilian students and researchers, including under the Science without Borders programme. Do you have exact figures?
To date, Ireland has received more than 2,000 Brazilian students under the Science without Borders programme. In the most recent call, CAPES were blown away by the demand from Brazilian students to study in Ireland. This is great news for Irish higher education institutes (HEIs). The calibre of students that have come to Ireland to date has been very high indeed, and not only does this travel encourage collaboration between HEIs on either side, but it also creates an ever increasing Irish diaspora in Brazil.
What about Irish researchers in Brazil?
Mobility in the opposite direction is slower, but is increasing as more and more collaborations are formed. Some Irish researchers have benefitted from the PVE aspect of Science without Borders, and they have already commenced their teaching in Brazilian universities. Several others are in advanced planning stages to send students. Issues around researcher mobility were discussed at length during the conference, and some issues arose, particularly around bringing scientific equipment into Brazil. One researcher spoke of his equipment which got stuck in Brazilian customs, and remains there to this day. Issues like this can be both challenging and frustrating. We hope to see some joint calls between Irish and Brazilian funders going forward, and this hope was echoed by the funding agency presidents who attended the conference.
In your opinion, what could be done to further enhance the mobility of international researchers between Europe and Brazil?
Information is key. The more that various agencies can do to impart information regarding vacancies, funding mechanisms, the better. Researchers travelling, not only to meet with collobarators, but also to deliver guest lectures, is vital in introducing one research community to the other. Events like Brazil-Ireland Science Week are fundamental in bringing disparate research groups together. There is a huge appetite for collaboration between the nations.
Thank you very much for your time.
Irish woman Sarah O’Sullivan is based in Rio de Janeiro, where she coordinates Research BrazilIreland (RBI), an initiative of the Irish government to promote scientific collaboration between the two nations. Funded by Science Foundation Ireland, RBI was launched two years ago, and is already showing positive results, with dozens of collobarative partnerships supported since its inception.
*Eleven Irish consirtium members; Dublin City University; Dublin Institute of Technology; Dundalk Institute of Technology; National University of Ireland, Galway; Maynooth University; University College Cork; University College Dublin; University of Limerick; Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland; Trinity College Dublin; Waterford Institute of Technology.
More than 80 senior Brazilian researchers from areas spanning nanotechnology & advanced materials; information & communications technology; sustainable energy & agroproduction; biopharmaceutical, biotechnology & health; and environmental science attended the event with their Irish counterpart. Representatives from all of the top ranking Brazilian universities were present; USP, Unicamp, UFScar, UFRJ, UERJ, etc.
Sergio Gargioni, president of Confap (the national council of state funding agencies in Brazil); Augusto Raupp, president of FAPERJ, the Rio de Janeiro funding agency; and Celso Lafer, president of FAPESP, the São Paulo funding agency, all travelled to Ireland. Ireland’s Minister of State for Research and Innovation, Damien English, His Excellency Afonso Cardoso, the Brazilian ambassador to Ireland, and His Excellency Brian Gylnn, the recently appointed Irish ambassador to Brazil, were also present. The European Union was also represented with space given to explore Horizon 2020, and its relevance to Brazilian researchers, and to Brazil-Ireland collaborations.
EURAXESS Ireland supported the poster copetition held at BrazilIreland Science Week. In the picture on the left, Denise Volante received her EURAXESS sponsoored prize from Alfonso Jose Sena Cardosa, Brazilian ambassador to Ireland.
Also pictured are Bernard Mahon, left, vice president for research, Maynooth University, and Jennifer Cleary, manager EURAXESS Ireland.
Increasing Irish presence in Brazil: a new consulate is to be opened in São Paulo in March by Irish education minister Jan O’Sullivan. This adds to Ireland’s local offices of Enterprise Ireland, Education in Ireland in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro respectively, the Irish Embassy in Brasilia, and representation of Tourism Ireland, and the Irish Industry Development Authority (IDA), also in São Paulo.
Attachment: meet_the_researcher_-_sarah_rbi.pdf