Imperial and University of São Paulo sign new research and education partnership

Imperial College London and Brazil’s University of São Paulo (USP) have signed a new five-year partnership in research and education.

Imperial – a world top ten university – have signed an agreement with Brazil’s top ranked university, USP, that will begin a new phase of closer collaboration between the two institutions. 

The partnership will see Imperial and USP expand research and education activities in a wide range of areas such as public health, engineering, energy and the energy transition, and artificial intelligence. 

The new agreement will also see increased mobility of scientists and students between Imperial and USP – with researchers spending time in each other’s laboratories in London and São Paolo, working on joint projects and sharing knowledge and data.  

The Imperial-USP partnership – which was signed at the Embassy of Brazil in London – signals the growing collaborations between scientists in the UK and Brazil. There are several research funding schemes supported by the governments of the two countries to strengthen links and develop projects. 

Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London, said: “This new partnership between Imperial and the University of São Paulo is a major step for UK-Brazil science. Our shared commitment to world-leading research and education will undoubtedly lead to new breakthroughs, discoveries and advancements that will benefit not only our institutions but people all over the globe.” 

Imperial and the University of São Paulo 

Last year Imperial and the University of São Paulo launched the Transition and Climate Change Fellowship Programme. The programme supports the exchange of academics for short, three-month sabbaticals to undertake research around the broad theme of ‘energy transition for a healthy, sustainable future’. The programme aligns with the priorities of the upcoming 2024 G20 Summit in Brazil and will enhance dialogue between universities and policymakers and support evidence-based policy for the global sustainable energy transition. 

During the pandemic, a team of scientists from Imperial and USP played a key role in identifying some of the most devastating COVID-19 variants, such as P.1. 

The Centre for Arbovirus Discovery, Diagnosis, Genomics and Epidemiology (CADDE) Centre, based at Imperial, analysed the first COVID-19 cases and identified the first COVID-19 variants of concern in Brazil. The Centre is at the forefront of genomic analysis in Brazil. 

Last year 141 students from USP took part in Imperial’s Global Challenge Lab which USP are a partner of. The hackathon was focused on finding solutions and ways to help meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Imperial and Brazil 

Imperial College London and Brazilian universities have co-authored 1,637 publications between 2018 and 2024 in areas such as clinical, pre-clinical and health, life sciences and physical sciences. 

Imperial is also working with universities in Brazil to inspire the next generation of women scientists. Supported by funding from the British Council for its Women in Science: UK-Brazil Gender Equality Partnerships programme, Imperial and partner universities are enabling progress towards achieving gender equality in science, technology, higher education and research institutions in Brazil. 

Last year Imperial and partners in Brazil created a new network called CAMO-Net which will support translational research to help tackle the main drivers of antimicrobial resistance. The network, which includes the Fundação Faculdade de Medicina as a partner, aims to address the global impact of AMR on human health by fostering research partnerships across low, middle, and high resource settings and across urban and rural environments.