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 may be delivered by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, companies, higher education and research organizations in other countries and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration.

As part of these efforts and also in the context of the celebrations of its Golden Jubilee this year, the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) holds seminars and exhibitions in Toronto, ON, Canada and Cambridge, MA, USA and events in Washington, DC and Morgantown, WV, in the USA this October.

The first symposium will take place at the University of Toronto on October 17, bringing together researchers from Canada and Brazil to debate topics such as “Physiology - Exercise for asthmatic and COPD patients: how much do they perform and which are the real benefits?”, and “Neurosciences - Antidepressant like effects of deep brain stimulation in rats and the hypothalamic, pituitary, adrenal axis”.

On October 22, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a seminar will discuss the collaboration between FAPESP and MIT and some results of such cooperation in the fields of Materials Science (advances in nanostructured semiconducting oxides for gas sensors) and Physics (investigation with atomic superfluids). 

On October 23, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in Washington, an event will mark the first anniversary of the inaugural FAPESP WEEK, held at the same venue in October 2011, and will see the announcement of further projects of cooperation between FAPESP and the Wilson Center.

On October 24, in Morgantown, in another event, officials of FAPESP and West Virginia University will start negotiations for the establishment of an agreement between the two institutions.

In Toronto, Cambridge and Morgantown an exhibit called Brazilian Nature about the Brazilian biodiversity will be inaugurated on the occasion of these events.

Brazilian Nature—Mystery and Destiny – an exhibition that covers knowledge on Brazilian diversity will be inaugurated on October 17 at the campus of the University of Toronto as part of a symposium sponsored by the University and the São Paulo Research Foundation that will discuss research projects funded by both institutions.

The exhibition will be open to the public for one month and was partially funded by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, through its Brazil Institute, based in Washington, DC.

The main reference of the Brazilian nature exposition is Flora Brasiliensis, the work of German botanist Carl Philipp von Martius (1794-1868), which remains the most complete study of Brazilian flora.

With reproductions of images, illustrations and explanatory texts, the 37 panels comprising the exhibition were based on data from FAPESP-funded projects: Flora Brasiliensis On-line and Revisited, Flora of the Phanerogams of the State of São Paulo and the BIOTA-FAPESP program.

The exhibition had successful showings at the Berlin Botanical Gardens in 2008, Bremen’s Haus der Wissenschaft in 2009, Leipzig University and the Woodrow Wilson Center (Washington, DC) in 2011, and Ohio State University and the University of Heildelberg in 2012.

The Flora Brasiliensis On-line and Revisited project, which makes up the first part of the exhibition, represents a continuation of Martius’ work, the last volume of which was published after the author’s death in 1906.

The project made Martius’ entire work available on the internet in 2006, consisting of 10,207 pages with texts describing nearly 23,000 species and nearly 4,000 illustrations. Flora Brasiliensis On-line and Revisited includes updated versions of the original nomenclature that Martius used and includes species described after its publication, with new information and recent illustrations. The project was financed by a partnership between FAPESP, Fundação Vitae and Natura Cosmetics, and was conducted by the Reference Center on Environmental Information (CRIA), the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) and the Missouri Botanical Garden in the United States. Flora Brasiliensis On-line is available at http://florabrasiliensis.cria.org.br.

The second part of the exhibition is dedicated to the Flora of the Phanerogams of the State of São Paulo project, begun in 1993 and involving the participation of over 200 researchers. The project draws together scientists from USP, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), the Botanical, Forestry and Agronomy Institutes and the São Paulo City Department of Parks and Green Spaces. Researchers from Embrapa, other Brazilian states and other nations contributed as well.

The third element of the exhibition goes beyond the limits of botany and deals with biodiversity on a broader scale. It follows the lines of the BIOTA-FAPESP program, the results of which have been applied as a vehicle for environmental preservation throughout São Paulo State.