(03.06.19) On 16 May, researchers from the city of São Carlos in the state of São Paulo had the opportunity to learn more about research and funding opportunities in Germany. The event was organised by the Information Centre of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in São Paulo and held on the engineering campus of the University of São Paulo (USP).

São Carlos has a reputation as a centre of technology in Brazil and is home to a number of teaching and research institutions with a particularly high proportion of professors and a number of technology companies. This reputation started to take shape in 1953 with the establishment of the engineering faculty of USP and grew in 1970 with the foundation of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFScar). In addition to these two renowned universities, the city is also home to two technology parks (ParqTec and Parque Eco-Tecnológico), a Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of São Paulo (IFSP) and two Embrapa research institutions.

At the invitation of Prof. Dr. Andrea Camargo – a former Humboldt fellow who conducts research and teaches at USP – the DAAD, DFG and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation outlined their funding programmes and opportunities for cooperation during the first part of the event. The presentation of DFG funding programmes also touched upon the multiple funding opportunities with FAPESP, the partner organisation in the state of São Paulo. The long-standing collaboration, which started in 2006, facilitates bilateral funding for research grants and coordinated programmes, while providing researchers from the state of São Paulo and their German partners with the opportunity to submit joint proposals to the DFG and FAPESP at any time. More information is available here.

In the second topic block, representatives of the Free University of Berlin, the University of Münster and the Technical University of Munich presented their universities and research profiles and answered the questions put forward by those in attendance. The experiences described by two researchers who completed their research visits in Germany, providing an authentic insight into a researcher's day-to-day work and its specifics and demands, were particularly informative for the audience of around 100 people.