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

The event has successfully taken place on the 4th of December, in Brasilia. It was organised around two main sessions, being the first of strategic and political nature, and the second more technical and operational.

In the morning session, representatives from the EC and from the key Brazilian partner funding Agencies have exposed the cooperation modalities being implemented under H2020, with insights on future scenarios within Horizon Europe.

A showcase of success cases has been brought as examples, covering different modalities of cooperation: from those entirely supported by the EC, to those co-financed by Brazilian funders. Also in terms of type of actions and thematic areas/programmes, the examples given cover a considerable variety: CSAs, RIA, ERC - Implementing Arrangement.

As for participation, a significant presence of Brazilian State Funding Agencies has been achieved, with the support of funding from INCOBRA (managed by CONFAP), covering the related expenses. 23 State Funding Agencies were represented by their Presidents and/or Directors and representatives from the International Units of the FAPs, in order to achieve both the political/decision making level and the technical one, which is in charge of all implementation activities related to such strategic cooperation.

Overall, 38 representatives from the following 23 FAPs were present: FACEPE, FAPEG, FAPES, FAPEAL, FAPESP, FAPAC, FAPDF, FAPESQ, FUNCAP, FAPEAM, FAPT, FAPEAP, FUNDECT, FAPERJ, FAPITEC, FAPEMAT, FAPEPI, FAPERGS, FAPEMA, FAPERN, FAPEMIG, FAPESC, FAPESB.

Also the Brazilian Federal Funding Agencies were present, represented both at decision making and technical level: CNPq and FINEP, which co-organized the event and CAPES, as participant. Many representatives from MCITC were also involved both as speakers (Secretary Alvaro Prata) and as participants, together with representatives from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which praised the organization of the event.

From the European side, apart from the representatives from the European Commission, DG RTD, in its high representation -  Maria Cristina Russo and Piero Venturi and from the EU Delegation to Brazil, also highly represented, many Member States were present, though their Embassies in Brasilia: Denmark, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Ukraine.

As for participation to the event, over 250 participants attended, representing research and innovation stakeholders and numerous Brazilian research institutions.

Given that the event was made available on streaming, though the RNP – CNPq channel, over 3000 connections have been made online, thus guaranteeing a very wide visibility, both in Brazil and in the EU.

The event has been very well disseminated by all the participating institutions: CONFAP and its FAPs, CNPq, FINEP, MCTIC, DELBRA, and also by the projects: INCOBRA, ENRICH Brazil, Euraxess Brazil. These three projects were also presented during the event though their representatives.

The afternoon session was of technical nature, and aimed at addressing operational issues of the cooperation, involving the funding agencies in the debate and providing concrete examples of best practices and cooperation modalities. A satisfactory interaction with the public was made possible, in the scope of clarifying doubts and overcoming possible bottlenecks, in order to improve the overall performance for the future and disseminate concrete calls and opportunities, apart from the results so far achieved.

Following the event, other high level events and meetings have been supported and organized, such as the participation of representatives from the EC to the event “Premio Jovem Cientista”, organized by CNPq at the Presidency of the Republic.

CONFAP has moreover taken care of the organization of a high level meeting between the Director Maria Cristina Russo with the future Minister of Science, Technology and Communications Dr. Marcos Pontes, in the scope of reinforcing upcoming cooperation possibilities and political ties.

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Event Agenda and Presentations (attachements) follow:

Morning Session - Opening Event:

08:30	Registration
09:00	Welcome Mario Neto Borges, President, CNPq
09:10	Opening Remarks Claudia Gintersdorfer - Chargé d'Affaires a.i., Delegation of the European Union to Brazil Alvaro Prata - Secretary of State for R&D Policies and Programmes, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation
09:40	Keynote speech on EU-Brazil Cooperation under H2020 Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation – DG RTD, European Commission
10:10	Synchronizing mechanisms to enhance EU-Brazil Cooperation under H2020 Maria Zaira Turchi, President CONFAP Mario Neto Borges, President CNPq Fernando Ribeiro, Director S&T Development, FINEP
10:40	Coffee Break
11:00	Showcases of EU-Brazil Cooperation under H2020 Celina Turchi Martelli, Microcephaly Epidemic Research Group - MERG; Instituto Aggeu Magalhães- Fiocruz/Pernambuco, “ZikaPLAN - Zika Preparedness Latin American Network” – H2020 Research & Innovation Action Andrei Polejack, General Coordinator for Oceans, Antarctic and Geosciences, Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications – MCTIC: AANChOR Project – “All AtlaNtic Cooperation for Ocean Research and innovation, H2020 Coordination & Support Action Helvecio Della Coletta Filho, Instituto Agronômico de Campinas/IAC/SAASP  - “Xylella fastidiosa in Olive oil trees in Brazil: knowing the players (bacteria and the vectors) for the sustainable management“ – H2020 Research & Innovation Action, Co-financed by FAPESP Dante Augusto Couto Barone -  Instituto de Informática da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Coordinator of the Research Group of  Computational Neuroscience and Cybernetic Systems- “ALEXANDRIA -  Foundations for Temporal Retrieval, Exploration and Analytics in Web Archives” - ERC - CONFAP Implementing Arrangement , Co-financed by FAPERGS
12:20	Closing Words Maria Zaira Turchi, President CONFAP
12:30	End of the Opening Event

Afternoon Session - Training Camp

14:00	Introduction to the Training Camp Maria Zaira Turchi, President, CONFAP Elisa Natola, Coordinator for EU-Brazil International Cooperation, CONFAP
14:15	Presentation of the H2020 INCOBRA project Julio Imenes, Coordinator of Intenational Cooperation,  FINEP
14:30	Presentation of Brazilian Co-funding existing modalities Elisa Natola, Coordinator for EU-Brazil International Cooperation, CONFAP Flavio Velame Teixeira, Science and Technology Analyst, CNPq Julio Imenes, Coordinator of Intenational Cooperation,  FINEP
15:30	H2020 calls of potential interest for Brazil Elisa Natola, CONFAP
15:45	Coffee Break
16:15	Overview on type of instruments related to the different calls and topics under H2020 Objective: detail the different type of support foreseen within the type of projects which may be supported under H2020 (RIA, IA, CSA, Eranets, MSCA) – thus addressing how co-funding can match Elisa Natola, CONFAP
16:45	Presentation of ERC – European Research Council Presentation of Euraxess Brazil Charlotte Grawitz, Country Representative of EURAXESS Brazil
17:15	Presentation of the H2020 ENRICH Brazil project Markus Will, Project Coordinator, Fraunhofer IPK
17:30	Discussion with Funding Agencies Objective: address specific modalities, critical issues, suggest fine-tuning for better alignment
18:00	Wrap-up and Conclusions – End of the Training