Queen Mary, Fiocruz and FGV agree seed funding to international collaboration

Queen Mary University of London, Fiocruz, and Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) have pledged £40,000 each in seed funding for the development of research collaborations following workshops which aimed to establish scalable projects to generate impact in Brazil. The funding will be used to create the “Brazil Accelerator Fund”, applications are opened to the staff of the institutions till january 31st.. At least seven new research projects have already resulted from the event.

Led by Professor Colin Grant, Vice Principal (International), 12 Queen Mary staff, including five academics from the School of Medicine and Dentistry (SMD) and five academics from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences travelled to Brazil to take part in the workshops. Around 40 people from Queen Mary and Brazil, including Professor Mauro Perretti, Dean for Research in SMD, and Professor Paul Heritage, Director of People’s Palace Projects, took part.

Queen Mary, Fiocruz and FGV identified a number of common research themes for collaboration together and with other partner institutions in Brazil, including the Federal University of Minas Gerais, the University of São Paulo and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

The common research themes are:
- Gender-based violence in favelas.
- Cardiomyopathy/inflammation and big data.
- Hepatitis C/TB/HIV elimination in favelas.

In addition to the workshop hosted by Fiocruz, an additional workshop was held with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, including colleagues from Argentina and Uruguay, to consider themes of oral public health, women’s health, dental materials and territory, equity, art, identity and culture. The rector of UFRGS also announced that seed funding would be made available for projects through the CAPES-PrInt internationalisation project.

Other activities surrounding the workshop included a reception at Casa Rio, the Brazilian Home of People’s Palace Projects, which was attended by the Minister for Culture and Creative Economy of Rio de Janeiro. Queen Mary academics also visited the favelas of Maré, facilitated by People’s Palace Projects.