Some 1,500 Brazilian scholarship students will be able to come to Ireland and conduct research with its higher education institutions and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)-funded research groups as a result of education and research agreements signed between SFI and two Brazilian state agencies.
The agreements, which have a particular focus on science, engineering and technology, will enable Brazilian scholarship students to visit Ireland over the next four years. The first group is expected to arrive this autumn.
“Research activities prosper when collaboration, mobility, exchange of ideas and strategic approaches from differing perspectives are facilitated,” said Mark Ferguson, director general of SFI.
“Despite already being the sixth-largest economy in the world, Brazil remains intent on growing and, in particular, closing existing skills and capacity gaps. The country’s ‘Science Without Borders’ programme, to which Ireland is now a signatory, endeavours to address these shortfalls, and I foresee symbiotic and successful scientific partnerships between Ireland and Brazil over the coming years.”
Ireland’s Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan, TD, signed the agreement during his visit this week to the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro.
The combined efforts of many, including the Irish Embassy in Brasilia, Enterprise Ireland, the Department of Education and Skills, the Higher Education Authority, SFI, Irish Universities Association, Institutes of Technology Ireland, Dublin Institute of Technology and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, helped bring the agreement to fruition.
