Unicamp seeks to expand cooperation with Portuguese universities and institutions

After a period of contact hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, Unicamp has started, now in March, a process of rapprochement with Portuguese universities and institutions. A Unicamp delegation, led by Brigadier General Antonio José de Almeida Meireles, was in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra between March 20 and 24, for a series of meetings with deans, members of educational and research institutions and representatives of companies related to research in the field of renewable energy.

The aim, explained the dean, was to resume or start cooperation projects between institutions. The trip was organized by Unicamp’s International Relations Executive Board (Deri).

In addition to the Dean, the Brazilian delegation included the Chief of Staff, Professor Paulo César Montagner, Professor Angela Cristina Lucas, Advisor to the Research Department, Professor Alfredo César Barbosa de Melo, Shield Advisor, Professor Rene Trentin Silvera, Director of the Faculty of Education, Professor Odilon José Roble, Director of the Faculty Physical Education, Professor Flavio Henrique Baggio Aguiar, Director of the Dental Faculty of Piracicaba, Professor Leonardo Lorenzo Bravo Roger, Director of the Faculty of Technology, and Daniel. Cantinelli Civilano, also from Derry.

In Lisbon, the group was in contact with representatives of the Committee of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) – an institution that includes members from all Portuguese-speaking countries of the world and which acts as an entity to promote cooperation between these countries.

According to the dean, the meeting discussed forms of cooperation with cultural, university, scientific and technological bodies in Portuguese-speaking countries. The group was then greeted by the Brazilian ambassador to Portugal, Raimundo Carneiro, and in Lisbon, they visited the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation—which houses the private collection of the Lisbon-living philanthropist of Armenian descent who, in 1956, ended up creating the foundation by will.

The institution has a modern art center that brings together the most important collection of modern and contemporary Portuguese art, an orchestra, a choir, an art library and archive, a scientific research institute and a garden, a central space for the city of Lisbon, where educational activities also take place.

The delegation also met with representatives from the research field of EDP (Energias de Portugal). The company, which has investments in Brazil, operates in the wind and photovoltaic sectors. The Campinas Group presented the HIDS (International Center for Sustainable Development) presentation to the company’s executives.

University of Coimbra

The Unicamp group was at the University of Coimbra – where they were welcomed by the Vice-Chancellor for External and Alumni Relations, Professor João Nuno Calvo e Silva, and the Vice-Chancellor for Open Sciences, Delphim Leão. According to information from the university, about 3,000 Brazilian students are enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Coimbra.

“We have many collaborations in some areas, both in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and in research,” said the Dean of Unicamp. “We also gave a lecture on the challenges of science and technology in Brazil and in the state of Sao Paulo,” he said. In addition, the Directors of the Teaching and Research Units also met their correspondents at the University of Coimbra.

The field of sports and humanities

The group was also at the University of Porto, says Meireles, with whom Unicamp maintains a very strong collaboration in the field of sports and in other areas of the sciences and humanities. “These conversations were, first, with the rector of the university, Antonio de Souza Pereira, and then with the technology and innovation field of the university, UPTech (Universidade do Porto Tecnologia), which represents the Portuguese correspondent of what will be Inova Unicamp,” Meirelles explains.

Meetings were also held with the directors of several units. Each manager held separate meetings with the managers of the corresponding local units, with the aim of expanding existing agreements or initiating new partnerships. According to Meireles, representatives from the University of Porto will visit Brazil in the second half of this year. “Our goal is to expand what we have in terms of collaborative actions and have this penetrate more deeply into the structure of the two universities, including areas that do not yet have agreements,” he says.

Work in progress

The Dean ensures that this approximate work will continue with teaching, research, extension and innovation institutions in other countries. He noted that a group from Unicamp was in contact with universities in Germany, and later in the UK.

“It is a systematic endeavor to restore relations that have been somewhat damaged by the pandemic, but to bring them back to a new level, with the aim of our strategic planning and what opportunities offer in Brazil today – mainly related to issues of sustainability. And we will continue,” says Meirelles. According to him, visits are scheduled for educational institutions in Canada and the United States this year.

Our goal is to strengthen these relationships and, in the long term, we seek better symmetry in the relationships. Brazil, traditionally – and Unicamp in particular – sends more people than it receives. We want to reduce the asymmetry of this movement. We want to bring in more researchers and students from abroad as well as exchange servers, so that we can improve our administrative processes,” he says.

“We believe it is possible. We have challenges to meet, but we also have good assets, so to speak. Unicamp is an internationally recognized university, and Brazil in turn has the appeal of being one of the countries where the issue of environmental sustainability and social inclusion is at the top of the university’s agenda. This is attracting the attention of the world and universities all over the world,” Meirelles believes.

Policy

The dean’s trip to Portugal reflects the international relations policy devised by the department and implemented by Derry, says Alfredo de Mello. “We are a university that maintains a fruitful dialogue with other major universities, such as the University of Coimbra and the University of Porto, with which we maintain a very high-level academic collaboration. But beyond academic links, Unicamp has managed to insert itself into an increasingly complex political-scientific ecosystem, speaking to corporations, third sector and government agents to coordinate our international business,” he adds.

“The mission showed that Unicamp is ready to insert itself into a challenging world that requires the university of increasing diversity to interact with a society undergoing rapid social and technological changes,” the professor concludes.