Emerging Technologies News 1st Brazil-Portugal International Cooperation in Nanotechnology Workshop 1st Brazil-Portugal International Cooperation in Nanotechnology Workshop
- 17/07/2010
On 15-16 July 2010, the 1st Brazil-Portugal International Cooperation in Nanotechnology Workshop was held at the CBPF – Brazilian Center for Physics Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, within the Protocol between the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of the Portuguese Republic and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Federative Republic of Brazil in Nanotechnology (text in Portuguese). This protocol was signed by Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal, José Mariano Gago, and the Minister of Science and Technology of Brazil, Sergio Rezende, in a ceremony held at the Grémio Literário, Lisbon, on 10th October 2009, when they signed four cooperation agreements in areas of science, technology, innovation and information society (see Signing of Protocols on Cooperation in Science, Technology and Information Society between Portugal and Brazil).
The preparation of the five protocols of cooperation was coordinated in Portugal by the President of the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES), Luis Magalhães, and in Brazil by the Chief of the Counseling Office on International Affairs of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), José Monserrat Filho, in a series of videoconferences with several Brazilian and Portuguese institutions on 18th May, 22nd April and 17th March 2009.
The 1st Brazil-Portugal International Cooperation in Nanotechnology Workshop (see program (text in Portuguese)), coordinated by Professors José Monserrat Filho and Luis Magalhães, and organized by Professors Mário Baibich, Director of the Department of Policy and Thematic Programs of the MCT of Brazil, and Luis Melo, Coordinator of the Nanotechnology Network of Portugal in the FCT –Science and Technology Foundation of the MCTES of Portugal, joined about 30 researchers with responsibilities in research institutes and centers in nanoscience and nanotechnology in Brazil and Portugal and had as goals to share information and results on key areas and activities of those centers and research institutes, to identify issues of common strategic interest for the opening of a joint call for collaborative Nanotechnology R&D projects, and to discuss ways of implementing the components of mobility and organization of international meetings foreseen in the protocol of cooperation mentioned above.
In the three days preceding the workshop, the delegation of Portuguese researchers visited several laboratories in Campinas and Rio de Janeiro. On July 12, they visited the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) in Campinas, in particular the Center of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology César Lattes (C2Nano), the National Laboratory of Biosciences (LNBio) and the Synchrotron Light Source, and they also visited the National Laboratory of Science and Technology of Bioethanol (CTBE). On July 13, the delegation visited the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and CBPF. On July 14, they visited the INMETRO – National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality.