About

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public taxpayer-funded foundation that has the mission of supporting research in all fields of knowledge within the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can be done only by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, companies, higher education and research organizations in other countries known by the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration.

As part of these efforts, FAPESP organized symposiums and exhibitions in several countries, in cities as Washington, Morgantown, Cambridge, Charlotte, Raleigh and Chapel Hill (US), Toronto, Salamanca, Madrid, Tokyo, London, Beijing and Munich.

In November 2014, UC Berkeley and UC Davis will host FAPESP Week California. The symposium, organized and sponsored by FAPESP with the support of the Brazil Institute at the Wilson Center, aims at strengthening the links between scientists from Brazil and the U.S. with the objective of promoting research partnerships.

The São Paulo Research Foundation, FAPESP

São Paulo has a population of 40 million and generates 35% of Brazil’s GDP. Under the state constitution 1% of all state taxes are appropriated to fund FAPESP. The stability of the funding and the autonomy of the foundation allow for efficient management of the resources, having a sizable impact: while São Paulo is home to 22% of the Brazilian population and 30% of all scientists holding a doctorate in the nation, the state responds for 52% of the scientific articles published in international journals coming out of Brazil.

The Foundation works in close contact with the scientific community: all proposals are peer reviewed with the help of panels composed of active researchers from the specific area. Many times scientists in São Paulo submit proposals for programs to the foundation which are carefully analyzed and, if deemed strong in academic terms, are shaped by the foundation into research programs that will constitute a set of related research projects in a given area.

Since FAPESP’s mandate is to foster research and scientific and technological development in the state, ideas for programs that couple world class research with contributions that will impact social problems are welcome. The foundation supports large research programs in biodiversity and in information technology.

FAPESP invested around US$ 500 million in research projects in 2012. One third of this value went to fellowships for graduate and undergraduate students. About 60% went to exploratory academic research. The remaining was invested in application-oriented research, in many cases carried out by small businesses or in joint research between academia and industry. The percentage invested in applied research has been growing in recent years, consistent with the foundation’s mandate to foster scientific and technological development in the State of São Paulo.

More about FAPESP’s international collaboration initiatives and other information is available at: www.fapesp.br/en.