(24.08.17) On 9 August, researchers and professors from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) had the opportunity to learn more about the DFG’s work and activities in Brazil at the 3rd Colloquium for Applied Research. Kathrin Winkler, director of the DFG’s Latin America office, was invited to speak about the DFG and its funding programmes as part of a panel on ‘Funding Opportunities: Funds and Interests of International Agencies’. Addressing an audience of around 120, she spoke about cooperation with Brazilian partner organisations, funding opportunities for initiating collaborations between researchers in Germany and Brazil, and successful bilateral projects.

Interfaces between mathematics and life sciences

The day after the colloquium, a workshop was held for FGV researchers in applied mathematics and researchers from Fiocruz, a renowned Brazilian research institution in biosciences, which is especially concerned with neglected tropical diseases.

The event was designed to strengthen existing cooperation between the two institutions and stimulate new networks for collaboration. “We want to become more familiar with the projects and objectives of researchers from both institutions and identify interfaces for shared interests,” says Cesar Camacho, a professor of mathematics from FGV.

The unusual collaboration between researchers in mathematics and life sciences has already produced concrete results with social benefits. One example is the Info Dengue initiative, a system which records and maps dengue cases and thus supports efforts to combat the disease in Rio de Janeiro. Researchers collaborated to develop a website that provides information about the risk of infection in the most seriously affected areas of the city and accelerates the initiation of necessary measures. The participating researchers have also created a similar system for the flu virus.

During the workshop, plenty of further opportunities for future cooperation were identified. Fiocruz researcher Marcelo Pelajo Machado proposed an interesting approach: “We have an abundant collection of histopathological samples for yellow fever. These consist of liver tissue from deceased individuals with symptoms of the disease, collected since 1921 and associated with patient information. In addition to this, we have an extensive zoological collection of disease-carrying mosquitoes with geographical data. By combining this data, we could improve our understanding of vectors and the development and spread of the disease over time. This would generate new data which could be examined, for instance, in relation to a climate research question. For example, how have changing temperatures affected mosquitoes and yellow fever epidemics? Mathematical research at FGV could bring us closer to finding answers to this question.”

This proposal met with interest from FGV researchers, who also pointed to potential for cooperation on systems to predict epidemics and integrate machine learning in the huge Fiocruz databases.

Finally, participants defined further steps for stimulating contact and future joint projects.

Carolina Santa Rosa from the DFG Office Latin America was invited to the workshop so that she could learn about concrete examples of FGV’s research work and identify possible areas of collaboration with German researchers.