Brasília april 2024

Brazil's 2024 Budget for Science and Innovation

The Brazilian year began with excellent news in science and innovation. In 2024 the budget will be 3o percent higher than last year. One of the biggest problems in Brazil has been the lack of capacity of ministries and agencies to spend annual budgets, some of the reasons being bureaucracy, lack of projects and lack of technical staff. But in 2023, 2 billion € were executed, meaning 100 percent of the budget. The number of projects funded increased by 40 percent compared to the previous period. This amount is equivalent to the total spent over the last 4 years by the former administration.

Brazil has a lot of world-class research and innovation related to health (production of millions of doses of vaccines distributed in more than 70 countries and throughout the Brazilian health system), agriculture, bioeconomy, state-of-the-art particle accelerators (National Research Centre for Energy and Materials - CNPEM), aeronautics (with executive airplanes and a partnership with Saab) and aerospace (environmental protection, communication).

Memorandum of understanding (MOU)

Two MOUs were renewed at the end of last year. The first between the Brazilian Space Agency and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA) for Earth observation and monitoring for peaceful purposes. The second renewal was between the National Service for Industrial Apprenticeship (Senai) and the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE) to enhance the collaboration within the bioeconomy area to reach a net zero carbon dioxide society. This collaboration will be conducted as a partnership to build a new biodiversity innovation institute in Brazil. In 2024, Brazil joined the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) and is now the third non-European country, and the only one in the Americas, to be part of CERN.

The Embassy of Sweden in Brasilia and the OSI-Brasilia are looking for interns!

If you're interested in science diplomacy, this is an amazing opportunity as the strategic partnership between Sweden and Brazil is celebrating 15 years in 2024. The internship will focus on innovation, research, and higher education, with activities such as: participating in bilateral meetings, communication for our stakeholders, organizing events and reporting on matters of importance for the bilateral relationship. If you have an understanding of research, innovation and science in Sweden it is an advantage. Other valuable experiences you can bring could be from technology, health, science or international relations. Please send your CV and letter of motivation to ambassaden ambassaden.brasilia@gov.se last day is April 26th.

Delegation Visit

In November, Sara Modig, State Secretary for Business, and Industry participated in São Paulo at the Business Leader Forum (BLF). CEO´s of the most important industries from both countries and high-level authorities were present. During this period, we also had a delegation visit from Vinnova, Svenska Miljöinstitutet (IVL), Karolinska Institute (KI) Ignite and Rise. Vinnova representatives had meetings for 5 weeks to understand the innovation landscape in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, São José dos Campos, Campinas, Curitiba, and Brasília). Ignite and Rise were responsible for matchmakings, Ignite for matchmakings between Swedish startups and Brazilian industries, and Rise between SMEs, Researchers, and startups. IVL participated in the celebration of the 10th year of the Curitiba-Sweden partnership.

About Ana Carolina Bussacos:

Ana Carolina is a Biologist and Journalist with Master and Doctoral degree in molecular pathology. She has previously worked as a bioeconomy advisor for Smart Specialization at Brazilian Institute of Information on Science and Technology (Ibict), advisor at the Brazilian Bureau for enhancing cooperation between Europe and Brazil (project funded by FP7), journalist at the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM) and University of Brasilia as a visiting professor. Ana is working at OSI-Brasilia since 2018 firstly as advisor and now as Acting Head of Section.