INCOBRA - Increasing International Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation between Brazil and the European Union

The 1st Work Meeting of NIUMAR took place in Lisbon, at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) of the University of Lisbon, on May 21 and 22. NIUMAR (Network on Intelligent Urban Mobility and Accessibility Research) is one of the networks selected by INCOBRA to receive funding to conduct bilateral research, promoting EU-BR cooperation.

NIUMAR  is  a  research  network  founded  by  four  institutions:  Instituto  Superior  Técnico - IST  (Portugal),  Newcastle  University  (England),  Universidade  Federal  do  Ceará - UFC  (Brazil)  and  Universidade  Federal  de  Pernambuco – UFPE (Brazil).  Its  main  objective  is  to  foster  urban  mobility  and  accessibility  research  in  Brazil  and  to  promote  sustainable  cooperation  between  Brazilian  and  European  researchers  in  this  area.

The network representatives at the meeting were Dr Camila Garcia and Prof Rosário Macário (IST), Dr Marin Marinov (Newcastle University), Prof Felipe Loureiro (UFC) and Prof Oswaldo Lima Neto (UFPE). The meeting was also attended by Ana Carolina Gomes (Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação - SPI), Ana Cravo (SPI) and Pedro Guedes (Porto Digital), who provided mentoring for the network. Prof Cecília Silva (Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto) was also invited and delivered an insightful presentation on Accessibility Instruments for Planning Practice in Europe.

The work meeting was crucial for the network to refine its priorities, objectives and specific topics of research interest, as well as to select calls for funding to which NIUMAR intends to submit proposals next year.

The second Work Meeting will be held in Recife, on June 25 and 26, at Porto Digital.