Chapter 8 EU-Brazil Cooperation
The Science without Borders Programme Experience
In: Building Higher Education Cooperation with the EUPurchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
This chapter presents an overview of the Science without Borders programme, launched by the Brazilian Federal government in 2011, in order to analyse its contribution to the cooperation with European Union countries. To date, this programme represents the most ambitious initiative of the Brazilian government to fight the country’s conspicuous academic isolation. Between 2011 and 2016, it sent more than 92 thousand Brazilian students and scholars abroad, of whom 50.7% went to European Union countries. The chapter presents the main features of the programme and the role of the European Union in this specific international cooperation strategy. In addition to a bibliographic and documentary review of the programme, it also presents the results of a case study carried out at a Brazilian public research university which was one of the most active institutions of origin. It concludes that, even though the programme has contributed to increasing the circulation of students and researchers between Brazil and the European Union, its design was limited in terms of establishing long-term cooperation between Brazilian and foreign higher education institutions.