Brazil and India to cooperate in biotechnology studies

Credit: Ascom/MCTIC

Brazil and India should extend cooperation to areas of biotechnology, industry and health

The Minister of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC), Gilberto Kassab, received the Indian ambassador in Brazil Sunil Lal on Tuesday (11th) to plan the resumption of the Joint Commission on Science and Technology.

The first and last bilateral meeting took place in New Delhi in March 2012. Since signing their Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation in 2006, in the view of Sunil Lal, countries have maintained a flow of partnerships between countries.

"We still have a lot to do," commented the ambassador. "Our interest is to collaborate on agricultural, industrial and health biotechnology." In order to plan the second meeting of the Brazil-India Joint Commission on Science and Technology scheduled for the second semester in Brasilia, Kassab suggested holding a preparatory meeting in May at the embassy with representatives of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Financing Agency for Studies and Projects (FINEP), the Secretariats of Technological Development and Innovation (SDEC), Development Policies and Programs and the Special Advisory for International Affairs of MCTIC.

At the New Delhi meeting in 2012, the two governments established a memorandum of understanding on biotechnology, which resulted in two public calls launched by NCSTD in 2013 and 2015. The bilateral bids stimulated scientific and technological cooperation projects in agriculture, focusing in sugarcane and second and third generation biofuels; Industry, for the development of biopharmaceuticals and vaccines; And health, in search of solutions for infectious and neglected diseases.

Another joint public call with the NCSTD, initiated in 2012, encouraged bilateral partnerships in health sciences and biomedical sciences; Renewable energies, energy efficiency and low carbon technologies; Engineering, materials science and nanotechnology; Geosciences, including oceanography and climate change; Mathematics and information technology and computing.