The Newton Fund was launched in 2014 by the United Kigdom Government aiming at support the social and economic development through research and innovation capabilities of 16 partners countries, included Brazil.
By the UK side the program was managed by Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (similar to a Ministry). Therefore, the activities were carried out by a series of institutions, such as the Academy of Medical Science, the British Academy, the Royal Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering, British Council, Met Office and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
For the implementation of an activity in one of the partners countries, it was necessary the establishment of partnerships with local institutions, such as in Brazil, the CONFAP, CNPq, CAPES, FAPESP, EMBRAPA, FIOCRUZ, among others. It was also necessary a counterpart from the local partner and in line with Official Development Program (ODA) – UK Government Program to support countries in development.
Then, the activities were separated in three pillars, that are:
Aiming at participate the Newton Fund´s activities, the CONFAP established the following Memorandum of Understanding with UK institutions:
It was not established a specific agreement with the UKRI. Therefore, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning Newton Fund was considered as legal basis for the activities with this partner.
Regarding to the joint activities with CONFAP, all FAPs participated in the established Memorandum of Understanding. However, they had autonomy to decide the activities which would participate (this principle rules the international activities of CONFAP). Therefore, the call for proposals had the focus to foster the establishment of new partnership, mainly ECR, consolidate the existing partnerships, mobilities of researchers, and joint research projects. The activities launched with each UK partners were:
British Council:
UKRI
UK Academies 2014 to 2022 - observations:
In the period of 2014 to 2022 were launched 27 joint calls for proposals and were approved more than 600 projects. Moreover, all FAPs participated at least one activity.
Additional
information:
Besides the initiatives in the scope
of Newton Fund, it was carried out the following activities in partnership with
the British Council: UK-Brazil English Collaboration
Call, the FameLab, and the first edition of the capacity building program Women
in Science and Innovation.
The UK-Brazil English Collaboration Call was launched in 2018 with the goal to support projects focusing on the English language as tool for the internationalization and the improvement of teaching and learning of the language at lower secondary and upper secondary levels in the public school system. This call counted on the participation of nine FAPs. The call selected nine proposals and, among them, four received the support of two FAPs.
FameLab is the largest science communication competition and training program in the world for early career researchers (MSc, PhD, and PostDoc scholarships holders) in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The British Council delivered four editions of FameLab in Brazil out of each would selected a national champion to represent the country at the global competition, held at the Cheltenham Science Festival (United Kingdom). Besides CONFAP, the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI) though CNPq, supported three editions of FameLab Brazil (2017, 2018, 2020)
In 2019 the CONFAP supported the first
edition of Women in Science and Innovation, a
capacity building program elaborated by British Council and Museum of Tomorrow.
The
program is focussed on women researchers in STEM who wish to engage in
Innovation and entrepreneurship. A group of FAPs supported
the participants´ travel expenses to Rio de Janeiro (RJ) to attend the
workshop.
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