Daniel BuenoOn March 18, 2015, representatives of the European Union and FAPESP signed a letter of intent committing to support research conducted in partnership with scientists from institutions in São Paulo and in EU member states under the umbrella of Horizon 2020, Europe’s biggest research and innovation program. Ongoing since 2007, the program has an approved project budget of €80 billion through 2020, in addition to private investments; these funds are available to the international science community. “There is a great potential for us to expand our scientific partnerships, especially through this commitment to mutual cooperation signed with the state of São Paulo, which produces the largest number of research studies in Brazil—of extremely high quality,” Ana Paula Zacarias, EU ambassador to Brazil, told Agência FAPESP. FAPESP president Celso Lafer underscored this shared interest in scientific collaboration. “FAPESP supports a series of research projects conducted jointly by researchers in Brazil and around the world, and the partnership signed with the European Union is in keeping with the effort to internationalize Brazilian science that is now being pushed in São Paulo. Through Horizon 2020, researchers in Brazil and Europe will have easier access to new networks of scientific collaboration,” he stated.
