The JRC and the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) have signed in the last month, in Brasilia, in the context of the 6th EU-Brazil Summit, a Cooperation Arrangement to strengthen and further structure scientific and other cooperative activities in the areas of disaster prevention and crisis management; climate change and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystem services; energy, including bioenergy and smart grids; food security; bioeconomy; information and communication technologies (ICT), as well as nanotechnologies.

The Arrangement foresees exchange of personnel and scientific information, reciprocal access to laboratories; shared use of scientific infrastructure and support of training and of joint research.

This Cooperation Arrangement is a follow up to the Letter of Intent signed during the 5th EU – Brazil Summit in October 2011. It builds in particular on the success of the cooperation in the area of disaster prevention and mitigation and the assistance the JRC provided to the creation of CEMADEN (Brazil's National Centre for Disaster Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters). It also confirms the engagement of training and cooperation activities between the JRC and MCTI under the Brazilian Mobility Program 'Science without Borders'.

The Arrangement was signed by the JRC Director General, Dominique Ristori and the Brazilian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Marco Antonio Raupp, in the presence of the Presidents of the EU Council, Herman Van Rompuy and of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, as well as of the President of Federal Republic of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff.

 

Foto:JRC Director General, Dominique Ristori and the Brazilian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Marco Antonio Raupp, sign the Cooperation Arrangement