Canada moving quickly to establish formal S&T agreement with Brazil

Latin American powerhouse

Canada is aiming to formally sign an S&T agreement with Brazil later this year or in early 2008 as the government seeks to make up for lost time in boosting bilateral interaction with the emerging Latin American superpower. After a false start in 2003, both countries agreed last year that a new approach to S&T relations was required, resulting in official discussions and at least two official state visits to Brazil.

There have been two official visits to Brazil this year to gather information, establish person-to-person contacts and begin preliminary discussions on which areas of S&T are most fertile for research and industry collaboration. The March visit for a two-day Brazil-Canada S&T Forum was led by National Science Advisor, Dr Arthur Carty. Also participating were Dr Ted Hewitt, VP research at the Univ of Western Ontario (UWO) and Tapan Bose, president of the Canadian Hydrogen Association.

At the same time, bilateral negotiations are moving forward under the guise of the International Science and Technology Partnerships Program (ISTPP), established with $20 million in funding in the 2005 Budget.

In July, Carty and Hewitt accompanied the Governor General on an official state visit to reinforce the importance of S&T. Carty delivered a Canadian draft of the proposed S&T agreement, which will be further developed this fall during a visit to Brazil by Paul Thoppil, DG Innovation and Partnerships with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

"We were there to build relationships and networks before we have an S&T agreement ready to roll," says Carty. "The idea was to explore areas of common interest. Brazil, like Canada, has enormous forestry resources, natural gas, a lot of hydro-electric power and enormous agricultural potential."

An arm's length organization — ISTPCanada — has been established to fund bilateral projects with four countries – China, India, Israel and Brazil (R$, April 24/07). But until an S&T agreement is signed, funding for Canada-Brazil collaboration is on hold.

The renewed interest in enhancing Canada's relationships with Brazil comes at a time when that country's economic growth is accelerating. Brazil is dramatically increasing foreign direct investment in Canada, most recently the $19.4-billion acquisition of Canadian mining giant Inco by Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD).

"Brazil is hot and it's getting hotter. Brazil is investing heavily in Canada right now and it's happening right under our noses. We need to wake up and take advantage of this opportunity," says Hewitt, one of a handful of Canadian academic experts on Brazil. "In the area of S&T, Brazil is keen to collaborate but in a very focused way. They're not interested in just signing documents."

WTO battles largely forgotten

The bullish attitude is a far cry from the acrimony of the 1990s when Brazil and Canada were locked in a nasty trade dispute over subsidies over their regional jet development programs. Both countries battled it out at the World Trade Organization to settle what each considered to be unfair subsidies being provided to Bombardier and Embraer, resulting in changes on both sides.

"Embraer has sold planes to Canada now and Bombardier is having parts of its aircraft made in Brazil so some of the tension has disappeared," says Carty. "This S&T agreement will be one more step to normalize relations."

Within Latin America, Brazil is a dominant economic force and the continent's largest R&D performer. It spends 1% of is GDP on R&D and is aiming for 2% by the end of president Lula da Silva's second term in 2010. The national government is responsible for 40% of R&D expenditures, followed by industry (37%) and state governments (23%).

More than 300 research institutions employ about 60,000 researchers and the country produces 8,000 PhDs annually.

S&T strengths range from steel and steel recycling, agriculture, biotechnology, nano-technology and alternative fuels, particularly ethanol. Brazil derives more than 50% of its transportation fuel needs by converting sugarcane to ethanol and is considered a world leader in the field. Canadian expertise could increase the use of sugarcane for fuel and other uses even further.

"The real Canadian expertise is in cellulose ethanol — ethanol produced from waste — and Brazil is very interested in this," says Carty. "They have a lot of biomass including bagasse which is left over from sugarcane when you take the sugar out. Right now they use bagasse for energy but if they could increase their yield 50% by using the cellulosic technique on the bagasse, it could be a real opportunity."

academic potential

Hewitt says the March S&T Forum in Sao Paulo has stimulated a surge of activity on the academic research front, with UWO on the verge of signing an S&T agreement with Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, covering collaboration on bio-oil, software engineering and occupational therapy. He adds that the complementarity of the two nations on several S&T fronts bodes well for greater collaboration in the future.

Adding to the collaborative potential is the large number of Brazilian students studying at Canadian post-secondary institutions.

"Canada is the number one country for Brazilian students," says Carty. "We have more than 12,000 students coming to Canada every year."

A follow-up to the Sao Paulo Forum is planned for Ottawa this November. The International Development Research Centre and International Trade Canada are sponsoring the two-day event. It will explore Brazilian and Canadian S&T policy and push ahead on the project development front. President Lula is expected to visit Canada in early 2008 and officials hope the S&T agreement can be formally signed at that time.

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