Agreements
Letter of Intent between FAPESP and the European Union (Horizon 2020)
Letter of Intent between the European Union Delegation in Brazil and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) for the promotion of scientific and technological Brazilian participation in the Horizon 2020 programme.
Horizon 2020 is the European Union research and innovation programme that started in 2014 and will last until 2020. It is the world's largest research programme with a total budget of 80 billion euros and open to participation of partners worldwide.
Horizon 2020 is built around three pillars: excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges.
The main objectives of the programme are to ensure the scientific production with global impact, to remove barriers to innovation and to facilitate the interaction between the public and private sectors.
The Horizon 2020 calls for proposals can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/index.html
The review of proposals received by Horizon 2020 is performed based on a transparent evaluation system, by The European Commission. The reviewers specialists in different fields of knowledge and from different countries are chosen, based on their experience and technical skills, to be part of the evaluation committee.
FAPESP is one of the major research funding agencies in Brazil, supporting researchers based in the State of São Paulo. Researchers in the State of São Paulo corresponded in 2013 for 46% of scientific papers with authors in Brazil published in foreign journals. FAPESP's mission is to stimulate scientific and technological development in the State of São Paulo, through the support of research.
FAPESP has a vigorous program to stimulate the participation of researchers in the Sate São Paulo on research projects in international collaboration and constantly seeks to support research projects with great scientific, social and economic impact.
The review of proposals received by FAPESP is based on the system internationally known as peer review, with reviewers chosen between internationally recognized scientists.
The importance of international cooperation in science, technology and innovation is explicitly recognized in the Strategic Partnership EU-Brazil, in a strategy for mutual benefit and focused on research in areas of common interest.
Under the collaboration encouraged by FAPESP and the Horizon 2020, researchers based in the State of São Paulo and European researchers will be able to interact in order to develop collaborative research projects taking the best advantage of the opportunities offered in Europe and in Sao Paulo to access the knowledge in level of global excellence, access the research data and connection to global scientific networks.
Aiming at facilitating the collaboration on research projects, the EU Delegation in Brazil and FAPESP agree on the following points:
1) Exchange relevant information to enable the participation of São Paulo researchers with European researchers in the Horizon 2020 programme.
2) Act to facilitate interaction between researchers in Europe and researchers in the State of São Paulo targeted to the elaboration of joint research proposals for submission to FAPESP and to Horizon 2020 programme.
3) The European Union Delegation in Brazil will inform the representatives of FAPESP about discussions relating to call for proposals of the Horizon 2020 programme in order that they can participate in discussions on the choice of themes, whenever possible, according to the procedures and rules of the Horizon 2020 programme.
4) FAPESP will work to ensure that representatives of Horizon 2020 programme are informed and participate in choosing themes, whenever possible, according to the procedures and requirements of FAPESP.
5) FAPESP and the European Union Delegation in Brazil will publish information and guidelines on their respective websites to guide researchers interested in research collaborations under this letter of understanding.
6) In each case, the amounts to be granted in the research projects selected by FAPESP and by the Horizon 2020 programme will be defined by each agency according to its own procedures.
The termination of this cooperation can be decided unilaterally by either party.
Signed in São Paulo on March 18, 2015.