21-Oct-2022
Instruct-ERIC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Brazilian Centre for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) in Brazil.
CNPEM is a non-profit organisation, funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations (MCTI) to operate four laboratories: Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS)/Sirius, Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory (LNBio),Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano) and Brazilian Biorenewables National Laboratory (LNBR).
This partnership becomes the 11th MOU that Instruct-ERIC holds with a global structural biology facility, and the 2nd with an institution in Brazil. The Horizon 2020 projects EU-LAC ResInfra and RI-VIS contributed to the work towards this important agreement.
Harald Schwalbe, Director of Instruct-ERIC, says: “I am excited about the increasing interaction of the Structural Biology Communities in South America and Europe. Not only Covid-19 made the need of scientific exchange on a global scale apparent. Bundling resources, exchanging scientific methodologies and training young scientists will be an essential part of our future collaborations.”
Rodrigo Portugal, Head of the Cryo-EM facility at CNPEM says that "Having a MoU between CNPEM and Instruct will be of significant importance for our Cryo-EM strategy. It will allow us to strengthen our scientific collaborations with the EU and extend our capacity-building in the field."
“Promoting international partnerships is an important part of CNPEM´s strategy. The collaboration with Instruct-ERIC represents an opportunity to strengthen the exchange of knowledge and researchers. It has the potential to impact Latin American users who benefit from CNPEM’s open facilities to conduct competitive research.” says the General Director of CNPEM, Antonio José Roque da Silva.
Officially signed on 21st October at the International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI 2022), the MOU means that researchers at CNPEM can now participate in international access, training, and staff exchange activities organised by Instruct-ERIC.
This MOU signature follows extensive work and collaboration with organisations in Latin America, starting with Institut Pasteur Montevideo in Uruguay, which first organised a workshop for structural biologists in the region and was the first to sign an MOU with Instruct.
CNPEM joins an ever-increasing list of institutions to have signed an MOU with Instruct:
Read more about the international collaboration activities carried out by Instruct-ERIC here.
Instruct-ERIC is a pan-European distributed research infrastructure making high-end technologies and methods in structural biology available to users. ERIC stands for European Research Infrastructure Consortium, and refers to a specific legal form that facilitates the establishment and operation of Research Infrastructures with European interest, on a not-for-profit basis. ERICs are funded by subscription from member countries and governed by member country representatives. Instruct-ERIC is comprised of 14 Member Countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, EMBL, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and United Kingdom, and one Observer Country: Greece. Through its specialist research centres in Europe, Instruct-ERIC offers funded research visits, training, internships and R&D awards.
