On 24 May, members of the delegation from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in the Brazilian government visited and toured the University of Westminster to explore possibilities for international collaborations within the Institute of Healthy Urban Living (IHUL).
The Institute of Healthy Urban Living includes expertise from all three colleges and 13 schools at Westminster. While it has strong contributions from academics with expertise in Health, Health Data and Novel Materials, it also benefits from a broad range of areas such as the Arts, Arts Therapy, the Built Environment, Business and Economics.
The Institute aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform to build a strong research and knowledge exchange profile, as well as to bring together research, CPD training and teaching to accelerate change that will support urban health globally.
In attendance from the Brazilian Government was Carlos Marques, Director of the Department of Financing in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and former Westminster alumnus, as well as Dr Marcelo Gomes Meirelles, Secretary of Financial Structures and Projects in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
During their visit, they presented the Invest MCTI, a platform which aims to be a hub between private investors and science and technology projects, in turn creating a more productive and innovative business environment. They also discussed the opportunity for membership at the Institute of Healthy Urban Living.
The visit allowed Westminster to showcase cutting-edge research happening across the University in the disciplines of Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as the academic expertise available in the School of Life Sciences. It also allowed for the identification of synergy between the research and live projects currently being funded by the Government of Brazil to identify possible areas for collaboration.
Objectives for this visit were achieved, including plans for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be drawn up between the Ministry and the Institute; the Ministry joining the Institute as a member; and Westminster academics working in collaboration on live projects.
Professor Brendon Noble, Director of the Institute for Healthy Urban Living, says: “Our developing relationship with our friends at the Brazilian Ministry is very exciting. We have identified many opportunities for collaboration and co-creation of solutions aimed at a range of challenges to urban health and prosperity. The Institute of Healthy Urban Living is passionate about both the challenges that the urban environment presents to health and wellbeing and also the opportunities that it presents through density of workforce, innovators, finance and technology. We very much look forward to working with our Brazilian colleagues to change the urban health landscape in both of our countries and across the world.”
Speaking on the importance of this visit, Carlos Marques said: “Firstly, this is a very emotional visit, because it brings back memories from a very nice period of my life. But I think this knowledge about Westminster helped me to see value in the first communication that we have, because I saw that we had this opportunity to connect. So, we decided to go ahead to propose to our people in Brazil about this Institute, and they gave me the green light to move forward, so that’s why we are here today. If we achieve this agreement, not only will we connect with the University, but also the UK ecosystem to the Brazilian ecosystem.”
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