New agreement offers academic and industrial research opportunities for post-secondary students
Vancouver, BC, August 11, 2020 — As the world starts to look to the post-COVID-19 future, Mitacs is pleased to announce an international research mobility agreement with the Araucária Foundation, the Brazilian research support foundation in the State of Paraná.
Mitacs and the Araucária Foundation’s three-year partnership will support 150 undergraduate, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows from both countries. Participants will join academic and industrial research internships under the supervision of faculty members of Canadian and Brazilian universities.
While the partnership provides research opportunities to a variety of academic disciplines, Mitacs and the Araucária Foundation are committing to support research exchanges in the priority sectors of artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, pandemic preparedness, and the green economy.
Through these internships and exchange opportunities, researchers will build bilateral academic research networks and serve as a foundational element for more impactful collaborations between the Brazilian and Canadian innovation ecosystems.
Quotes:
John Hepburn, CEO and Scientific Director, Mitacs
“Mitacs is proud to partner with the Araucária Foundation to provide opportunities for students and fellows from Brazil and Canada to do research abroad. We know that these collaborations are mutually beneficial to Canada and our partner countries because international student exchange makes our economies more prosperous, innovative, and competitive.”
Ramiro Wahrhaftig, President, Araucária Foundation
“Araucária Foundation has been working with collaborative agreements called New Research and Innovation Arrangements. We know that the State of Paraná has the capacity to position itself as a global reference, and sign partnerships with extremely important institutions such as Mitacs. This is possible only because we use our highly qualified talent in academia to assist in creating prosperity and income, as well as in transforming science and technology into innovation.”
Luiz Márcio Spinosa, Scientific, Technology and Innovation Director, Araucária Foundation
“This partnership with Mitacs is very welcome. It helps us to implement a more focused and selective internationalization policy, as well as the possibility of interaction for our researchers in Paraná — currently, about 20,000 PhDs — with researchers from Canada, aiming at developing personnel and intellectual capital on various areas oriented by the developing demands of the State. For us, this creates a very favorable context for the partnership. We hope that, with the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, we will work on other joint actions with the goal of developing science, technology and research guided by the development demands of both Paraná and Canada.”
About Araucária Foundation
The Araucária Foundation of Support for Scientific and Technological Development of the State of Paraná seeks the social, economic, and environmental development of Paraná through investments in science, technology, and innovation. Araucária is one of the 26 state research foundations of Brazil and is part of the Brazilian National Council of State Funding Agencies (CONFAP). Its projects are developed based on three strategic areas: Promotion of Scientific and Technological Research, Verticalization of Higher Education and Training of Researchers, and Dissemination of Scientific and Technological Research.
About Mitacs
- Mitacs is a not-for-profit organization that fosters growth and innovation in Canada by solving business challenges with research solutions from academic institutions.
- Mitacs is funded by the Government of Canada as well as the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, and the Government of Quebec.
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