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

Today we present you NIUMAR, Network on Intelligent Urban Mobility and Accessibility Research, one of the 5 EU-Brazil STI cooperation networks selected by INCOBRA to receive a 19500€ grant and light mentoring support.

What are NIUMAR objectives?

The main objective of NIUMAR is to foster the urban mobility and accessibility research in Brazil and to promote sustainable cooperation between Brazilian and European researchers in this area.

Which are the potential impacts yielded from your network for? 

• Establishment of a stronger agenda for the accessibility and mobility research in Brazil as well as to improve the European knowledge regarding the Brazilian urban transportation and land use subsystems.
• Contributing for the development of a smarter urban planning and decision-making process in Brazil as well as for the EU-BR policy dialogue on urban sustainable and ICT issues.
• Serve as a tool for the dissemination of the Brazilian research agenda in Europe and vice versa, through the organisation of events, mail lists, social networks, etc.
• Identification and development of a list of opportunities for further joint ventures and collaborative research projects.

What are the main activities carried out so far, and the main achievements in strengthening EU-BR research and innovation (R&I) cooperation in your thematic area?

Three meetings have been held so far, during which it was possible to:

• define the research agenda of the network, which is based on three pillars: a) planning for accessibility and mobility; b) measuring accessibility and mobility; and c) assessing accessibility and mobility problems and solutions.
• identify specific research topics of interest for each partner and the possible collaboration between them.
• discuss research project proposals that were recently submitted to Brazilian funding’s (Chamada Universal MCTIC/CNPq Nº 28/2018 and Bolsas de Produtividade em Pesquisa - CNPq) or that will be submitted to other funding programmes to be identified.

Discover more here.

Which are the most beneficial outcomes of bringing together the participants of the network in the foreseen events/meetings?

Two main beneficial outcomes can be identified: 1) to expose Brazilian researcher to the European Research panorama, specially in relation to how the H2020 program works. 2) to foster the collaboration between Brazilian and European researcher by developing joint research proposals. 

What are the plans for the future?

Continue the collaboration between the partners through the development of the following activities:

• Defining a research programme for the next three years
• Co-supervision of Master's and PhD theses
• Interchanging of research for Short/long visits
• Participation in Master's and Doctoral defence juries
• Prospecting for joint project financing

How INCOBRA is supporting your network? Is it useful? What are the advises you would give to other R&I players willing to engage in international cooperation programmes (with BR and with EU)?

Prof. Bruno Bertoncini (UFC- Brazil)

“The conception of this program and support brought by INCOBRA has been important, since it makes it possible to hold meetings between researchers, discuss research and create research networks, which is very pertinent for scientific improvement. I believe that investigating problems in the Brazilian reality, in European view, is a good way to establish these partnerships, which may generate new scientific developments.”

 

Prof. Renata Oliveira (CEFET-MG – Brazil)

“Initially, I would like to thank INCOBRA and NIUMAR organization team for the opportunity to attend the workshops. I started my participation after the first seminar, in the meeting held in Recife. I was very impressed with the team’s cohesion regarding the research topics. The research initiatives presented by each scholar highlighted the complementarity among proposals. Also, all the researchers involved are open to developing a cooperative project, as well as seeking interdependent competences to shape the network and respective research questions.

Personally, new horizons have arisen for the development of my research activities. I’ve been working with Transportation Geography applied to transport systems and urban planning, mostly with a focus on mobility enhancement. I had little vision of a broader and more holistic approach of the transportation issue concerning the urban system. The discussions held in the meetings were very important to guide new research initiatives, now engaged in the enhancement of the urban environment through accessibility planning and assessment. At this moment, I intend to emphasize the development of projects aligned with the NIUMAR research questions and to contribute as much as possible for the development of projects in cooperation between Brazil and the EU. I truly advise other R&I players to engage in international cooperation initiatives such as this one.”

 

Dr. Camila Garcia (IST-Portugal)

“INCOBRA's support for the establishment of the NIUMAR network has been of fundamental value. Meetings held over the last few months have allowed researchers to identify common research interests and define forms of collaboration that go beyond traditional research proposals. Mentoring from Porto Digital has been crucial to this. Based on this experience I recommend other R & I players to engage in such initiatives as they broaden the view of Brazilian researchers while bringing new perspectives to European researchers.”