By Andrea Hargraves 
CNPq, after 13 years, resumed bilateral cooperation with the French National Research Agency (ANR, the country's main research promotion entity) and established, for the first time, a partnership specifically focused on research in the field of infectious diseases with the French organization. Dedicated to this topic, ANRS. The agreements will soon enable the launch of public calls and other cooperation actions aimed at research.
The Framework Agreement for Financing Research Projects with the National Agency for Scientific Research and the Memorandum of Understanding with the National Agency for Scientific Research were signed during the sixth meeting of the Brazilian-French Mixed Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation, held in Manau (AM), in which CNPq was represented by the Director of Institutional and International Cooperation and Innovation, Delilah Andrade Oliveira. “These two agreements are very important, which will allow us to strengthen our research relations with France, a country that has historically been a partner of Brazilian science. We are very satisfied,” says the director.
The framework agreement signed with ANR aims to strengthen Franco-Brazilian cooperation in the field of scientific research and financing joint projects, led by qualified French and Brazilian partners according to the ANR and CNPq criteria. The signing represents the resumption of cooperation with the National Research Agency, which has been suspended since 2011, the year in which the last public call for the partnership was launched, which supported 5 joint research projects in the fields of mathematics, physics and biodiversity, with financial support for research and training. Including granting shares of scholarships abroad. During this period, ANR remained a partner of CNPq in joint EU advocacy.
The focus of the agreement, in principle, is to fund basic research projects in areas of study approved by the Joint Brazilian-French Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation – such as biodiversity, for example. Under the Framework Agreement, each partner will cover its own administrative costs in relation to its contribution to the activities and the implementation of the planned activities will be subject to the availability of funds in the respective budgets. The agreement is already in place and will be valid for three years.
Health research
The memorandum of understanding signed with ANRS Emerging Infectious Diseases, an independent agency affiliated with the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) in France, provides for the establishment of a Franco-Brazilian partnership in the areas related to diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, emerging infectious diseases and diseases. Sexually transmitted. According to the memorandum concluded with ANRS, the signatories can identify and identify other priority areas of research, where they develop joint study programs or innovative approaches to the identified priorities.
The document also notes that some of the initial general objectives of the partnership foresee the agencies participating in scientific events, working groups or evaluation committees, promoting information exchange and knowledge transfer within networks and communities, participating in bilateral discussions on the creation of a Franco-Brazilian multi-institutional research platform, as well as promoting debate. Scientific research on the priority areas identified in the memorandum.
To achieve these goals, the signatory parties committed to implementing several actions, such as encouraging and facilitating the exchange of information, supporting the development of joint research projects and facilitating research funding solutions between Brazilian and French teams. The memorandum of understanding has entered into force since its signing and will continue for five years with the possibility of extension.
Brazil and France: historic cooperation
Given its history of cooperation with French institutions, dating back to the 1970s, CNPq played an active role in building the topics discussed at this year's Brazil-France Joint Commission meeting. One of the oldest collaborations undertaken by CNPq is with the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, abbreviation in French), to support scientific and technological research. First signed in 1975, the agreement with the National Center for Scientific Research was renewed in 2007 and updated in 2015. Another collaboration that has been going on for years is the one established with the National Institute for Research in Informatics and Automation (INRIA, abbreviation in French) since 1997. Together, we have already launched four joint calls.
Cooperation with French institutions also includes an agreement with Inserm signed in 2007, which made it possible to launch five joint calls, in addition to cooperation with the French Institute for Development Research (IRD, for its acronym in French). Besides CNPq, IRD has also participated in projects supported by the European Commission. Since 2004, CNPq and IRD have launched seven convocations, which have enabled the implementation of 42 joint research projects, in the fields of geology, oceanography, biology (animals and plants), climate change, water resources, recovery of degraded areas, environment and forestry. Physical and chemical aspects of soil.
Between 2011 and 2012, CNPq and IRD also participated in a cooperation program and tripartite agreement that enabled the implementation of nine joint projects involving research aimed at combating desertification in Africa. In 2013, a collaboration signed with the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the National Association for Research and Technology, both French, allowed Brazilian students to pursue a doctoral degree in France, within the framework of the Sciences Without Borders programme.
The cooperation with France also includes the Franco-Brazilian Network for Research and Doctoral and Postdoctoral Training in Mathematics (RBFM), which has been renewed until 2028 and aims to promote scientific exchange, publication of articles, formation of human resources and – expand cooperation networks between experts in the field. The network is implemented by the Institute of Pure Applied Mathematics (IMPA), in Brazil, and in France, by the École Polytechnique – CNRS.
In addition to the various instruments signed with French institutions, the CNPQ offers scholarships to France and supports international research projects through its own calls, such as No. 26/2021, in which 97 projects in cooperation with France were approved and 117 scholarships implemented. General Appeal No. 14/2023, to support international scientific, technological and innovative research projects, 120 projects were approved and 45 grants implemented. CNPq still intends to reactivate cooperation with the Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD, in French). The agreement signed in 1982 did not record concrete measures for some time.