THE Australian Technology Network has secured a $1 million joint research agreement with Brazilian research agency FAPESP in a five-year deal to support research collaboration.
The deal appears small given that FAPESP last year invested about $588 million in research and fellowships, and ATN executive director Vicki Thomson admitted that the Brazilians would likely have matched any move by the ATN to put more money in. But she said $1 million between the partners would be effective in seeding collaborations.
“We don't need a lot of money to get that engagement happening,” she told the HES from Brazil.
She said there was rising competition from the US, Canada and New Zealand to secure research alliances with Brazil, which is investing heavily in research. The ATN's focus on industry engagement was particularly attractive to international research funding agencies, she said.
“Brazil’s public investment in research, whereby 1 per cent of state taxes are channelled into research, and the engagement of industry in that research is impressive. Equally impressive is the active role that Brazilian government agencies are playing in bringing together research and industry,” Ms Thomson said in a statement.
FAPESP is the research funding agency for Sao Paulo state.