The Campus do Mar Director Mr. Emilio Fernández described his visit last week to Brazil as “very positive”. He was accompanied by Mr. Alberto González Garcés, who is responsible for the Internationalisation Department, and they met with representatives of universities, research centres and financial entities from São Paulo, Río de Janeiro and Curitiba-Paraná. “On the one hand we are confident of closing deals with financial entities, principally with the National Board for Scientific & Technological Development (Consejo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico)”, so that the said institution will in time announce a specific offer for Brazilian students to do PhD studies within the DO*MAR program such that their theses can be jointly supervised by PhDs from the Campus do Mar and from their own countries”, explained Mr. Fernández.
He also added that to the above initiative we would have to add the establishment of agreements with all universities visited for setting up joint double PhD programs, “an essential step for the internationalisation process of our postgraduate studies”. The director of the Campus do Mar highlighted the relevance of the universities contacted, wherein the University of São Paulo is ranked number 1 in Latin America, according to the latest SCIMAGO ranking and placed amongst the 100 best universities in the world, whilst the University Federal from Río de Janeiro is ranked 5th by SCIMAGO. The understandings reached will soon materialise into draft agreements prior to commencement of the corresponding formalities.
Even though the relevance of the institutions visited last week is quite variable, Mr. Emilio Fernández highlights “the top scientific level of their lecturers and researchers”, as well as the sound interest generated towards the Campus do Mar at a time when Brazil is clearly experiencing a growth in R&D. “It almost seemed surprising to find rooms full of Directors of University Institutes, PhD program coordinators, Directors of international programs and even Deputy Vice-chancellors for Research”, said Mr. Fernández, who also confirmed the “enthusiasm” shown towards the Campus by researchers at the centres that were visited. These Centres and Universities may possibly be joined by others in the future because “this country of a continental dimension needs that extra effort”, he added. There is need to contact the Research Agency (Agencia de la Investigación) from São Paulo and the two Universities from Río Grande do Sul, which could materialise in the near future. Visits to educational, scientific and institutional bodies have also been confirmed for China, Mexico and Chile.
Source: DUVI