11th EU-Brazil Joint Steering Committee Meeting on Research and Innovation cooperation

On 12 December of 2023, the EU and Brazil convened the 11th Joint Steering Committee meeting (JSCM) on research and innovation cooperation in Brasilia. Hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil/Itamaraty, the meeting was co-chaired by Ambassador Luciano Mazza de Andrade, Director of the Department for Science, Technology, Innovation, and Intellectual Property, at Itamaraty, and by Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation at DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission. Participants included representatives from the Brazilian Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE), from several Directorates General of the European Commission, and the EU Delegation in Brazil.

Brazil is a major partner for the EU in research and innovation (R&I). Among Latin America countries, Brazil enjoys the largest number of participations in the EU R&I framework programmes based on a dynamic cooperation in a wide range of areas such as ocean , biodiversity and Nature Based Solutions, research infrastructures, sustainable aviation, sustainable agriculture, health, and space.

The JSCM acknowledged the central role of R&I in the overall EU-Brazil Strategic Partnership and confirmed the willingness of both sides to intensify cooperation in shared focus areas including:

• Copernicus Administrative Arrangement and Forest and Wildfires Monitoring (with a direct link to the Brazil G20 Presidency priority on the Amazon and Tropical Forests). Copernicus is bound to provide greater support in tackling a wide range of societal challenges in Brazil, from environment protection, and climate change to agriculture and urban development, based on an open data policy.
• Forests Monitoring/Early Warning Systems, based on the longstanding cooperation by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) with the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) on the Amazon.
• Innovation, notably through the possible association of Brazil to the Eureka, planned to be finalised at the Global Innovation Summit in June 2024 in Istanbul, and the new EU-CELAC Working Group on Innovation.
• Sustainable raw materials value chains with enhanced cooperation to support the clean energy and digital transition.
• Digital transition, notably through cooperation in fast changing cutting-edge technologies, such as 6G, data economy, AI, HPC/Quantum and semi-conductors, and the extension of BELLA (i.e. BELLA II) with increased benefits for connectivity and transfer of data between the research communities on the two sides of the Atlantic.
• Marine research under the successfully All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance (AAORIA), including with the launch of a new coordination and support action OKEANO addressing the pole-to-pole approach in marine research.

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International cooperation with Brazil