APORTA - Supporting EU Access to Brazilian National research programmes

Overview

Project title: Supporting EU Access to Brazilian National research programmes -  Acesso por Ciência e Technologia no Brasil
Web page: www.access4.eu/brazil
EU Funding: 499,476.00 €
Start of the project: October 2009
Duration: 36 months 
Scientific officer at the EU Commission: Marialuisa Tamborra
Project Coordinator:  International Bureau (IB) of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Contact person IB (DLR): Dr. Matthias Frattini (matthias.frattini@dlr.de) and Anna Schwachula (anna.schwachula@dlr.de)
Administrative contact person IB: Máximo Casas (maximo.casasgutierrez@dlr.de)

Partners

• International Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) (IB), Germany
• Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), Greece
• Institute for Development Research (IRD), France
• National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Brazil

Objectives

Within the framework of Access4EU-projects, APORTA aims at enhancing the access opportunities, and hence the active cooperation of EU member states research institutions in the national research and innovation programmes facilitated by Brazil. Essentially, the project focuses on a substantial collection of information regarding national research and innovation capacities and programmes within Brazil. Together with this, Brazilian authorities are made aware of the advantages of programmes accessible for EU-participation. However, the primary objective is to disseminate this information to the widest possible number of researchers and other stakeholders in the European Research Area, aiming at the creation of effective collaboration activities between the EU and Brazilian research community. In addition the project contributes to the work of the Brazilian-European Steering Commission by identifying how stronger synergies can be achieved between FP7 and Brazilian national and innovation programmes. The results of APORTA will be publicly available on a common ACCESS4EU web portal, and presented during information days and relevant events in Europe. The expected impact of the project will be the reinforcement of the current bilateral S&T agreement between Brazil and the EU, an increased participation of EU scientists in Brazilian research and innovation programmes, and a better understanding of the reciprocity of such programmes on both sides.

In order to assure a successful project implementation, APORTA is divided into four work packages (WP).

Project structure

WP1 - "Inventory and monitoring"

• Mapping and inventory of Brazilian national research programmes open to European researchers 
• Analysis of the framework conditions for access
• Implementation of information on access opportunities for EU researchers
• Monitoring the participation of EU researchers and institutes in Brazilian national research programmes

WP2 - Dialogue with the EC and Brazilian Programme owners

• Awareness raising among Brazilian programme owners and pointing out advantages of access for European researchers  
• Wrkshops on enhancing opportunities of EU participation in Brazilian programmes with relevant political decision makers and programme owners

WP3 - Information dissemination and outreach

• Awareness raising among European researchers on funding opportunities within Brazilian programmes, raising numbers of participation in programmes open to European researchers
• Creating strong networks between APORTA and bilateral programmes
• Linking up APORTA  with other Access4EU projects and contributing to a common Access4EU web portal

WP4 - Project Coordination and Management

• Project implementation management and coordination of the project

Highlights and Activities

Since its start in October 2009, The International Bureau has been responsible for the coordination of APORTA. The kick-off meeting with all consortium partners took place in Bonn in December 2009.

In the end of February 2010, the first version of the common ACCESS4EU web portal will be available online, as well as a specific APORTA web page. Please visit http://www.access4.eu/.