Beyond just studying and researching Brazil, Oxford is engaged in a
number or collaborative relationships with Brazilian colleagues and
institutions, rooted in equal partnership and mutually beneficial
knowledge exchange.
Structural Genomics Consortium
The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) at Oxford University has strong links with Brazil. Its collaboration with the National Laboratory of Biosciences (LNBio) on human NEK kinases and human myosins has already yielded impressive results.
Two further collaborations with the LNBio will begin in late summer 2012 involving metabolic enzymes and hypoxia. The SGC Company (non-profit) has also signed an agreement with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) which will, over the next 4 years, bring to SGC Oxford up to 5 post-doctoral fellowships and up to 5 visiting DPhil studentships from Brazil per year. Finally, discussions are ongoing on the establishment of a new SGC laboratory in Brazil, jointly with LNBio.
BNDES Partnership with the Blavatnik School of Government
In August 2012, Oxford University's new Blavatnik School of Government was delighted to announce that the BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) had become an official partner. BNDES will be partnering the school’s annual ‘Challenges of Government’ conference and both partners are in discussions exploring other kinds of cooperation for the future.
The launch of the Blavatnik School in 2010 as a global school of government presents a tremendous opportunity for the University to establish and build upon strong links with the Brazilian academic, government and practitioner communities. The aim of the Blavatnik School is to contribute to better government, stronger societies, and richer human opportunities across the world. In pursuit of excellence in leadership and public policy education, engaging with Brazilian policy leaders has been, and continues to be, pivotal to the pioneering, multi-disciplinary activities of the School.
Going forward, the Blavatnik School aims to strengthen its relationships with Brazil through studentships, research fellowships, and through an innovative visiting practitioner programme, with the ultimate aim of collaborating on questions and ideas that are central to Brazil’s intellectual, academic and public policy life.
Environmental Sciences
The University of Oxford has a number of staff and research projects that focus on environmental issues in Brazil. The greatest concentration of researchers is associated with the tropical forest programme, coordinated from the Environmental Change Institute and the School of Geography and the Environment, which has a high-profile international reputation for research on the future of the Amazon forest. In collaboration with Brazilian scientists at the Goeldi Museum (Belem), the National Amazon Research Institute (Manaus), and several Brazilian universities, the Oxford team maintains a number of unique long-term forest research sites across the Brazilian Amazon, a part of a Global Ecosystems Monitoring Network (GEM) coordinated by Oxford.
In addition, the group collaborates closely with the Brazilian National Space Research Agency (INPE) in the monitoring of fire, deforestation and carbon emissions in the Amazon. Every year a number of senior Brazilian scientists are hosted on sabbatical visits in Oxford (four in 2012 alone). Other staff and postgraduates in ECI, Geography, Development Studies, Zoology and Plant Sciences also conduct research in Brazil, including work on climate policy and greenhouse gas emissions, water resources, birds, palms, and indigenous resource management.
Herbaria and Plant Sciences
The BRAHAMS database, developed in Oxford, is a powerful data management system designed for botanical researchers and herbaria. The database integrates data and images from specimens, botanical surveys, field observations, living collections, seed banks and literature. The database is currently being used at one of the three largest herbaria in Amazonian Brazil (Herbário IAN, Belém), and by botanists working on the plant biodiversity of the Brazilian Amazon.
The University’s Department of Earth Sciences is collaborating with Petrobras in a growing partnership. As well as fully sponsoring one of its staff members on a doctoral programme for a DPhil in Earth Sciences at Oxford, the Brazilian energy giant is supporting several small-scale collaborative projects, as well as visits between the Petrobras Chemostratigraphy Group and colleagues in the Earth Sciences Department.
Technology Transfer
Isis Innovation is a subsidiary of Oxford University which focuses on managing technology transfer and innovation for Oxford. Isis has worked with several Brazilian universities over the last five years on technology transfer development. They are currently working to develop a technology transfer partnership with the INNANO institute, which is supported by the Brazilian government, and are embarking on a project to create a tech transfer operation within the existing nanotechnology institute that would serve three large universities in the San Carlos/São Paulo area. In Autumn 20120 ISIS Innovation participated in a workshop on technology transfer at the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS).
The launch of the Blavatnik School in 2010 as a global school of government presents a tremendous opportunity for the University to establish and build upon strong links with the Brazilian academic, government and practitioner communities. The aim of the Blavatnik School is to contribute to better government, stronger societies, and richer human opportunities across the world. In pursuit of excellence in leadership and public policy education, engaging with Brazilian policy leaders has been, and continues to be, pivotal to the pioneering, multi-disciplinary activities of the School. 
Isis Innovation is a subsidiary of Oxford University which focuses on managing technology transfer and innovation for Oxford. Isis has worked with several Brazilian universities over the last five years on technology transfer development. They are currently working to develop a technology transfer partnership with the INNANO institute, which is supported by the Brazilian government, and are embarking on a project to create a tech transfer operation within the existing nanotechnology institute that would serve three large universities in the San Carlos/São Paulo area. In Autumn 20120 ISIS Innovation participated in a workshop on technology transfer at the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS). 
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