The rector of Unicamp, professor Paulo Cesar Montagner, participated, in Rio de Janeiro, in the second edition of the Brics+ Rectors Forum – a bloc made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Iran.
Held in the first week of June at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the forum sought to reflect on the challenges faced by these countries when it comes to their development. The event was attended by approximately 300 people, including rectors, government authorities and representatives of the scientific community of the member countries and partners of BRICS+.
The rectors discussed issues divided into ten thematic areas – culture and politics, linguistics, energy, artificial intelligence, and combating poverty and inequality, among others. Montagner participated directly in the session on health and quality of life. The rector also gave a brief presentation on Unicamp.
At the end of the forum, the rectors issued a joint declaration setting out principles and visions for academic cooperation in the context of BRICS+. The first edition of the Rectors’ Forum had taken place in 2024 in Moscow (Russia), at Lomonosov Moscow State University.
New contacts
Also in Rio de Janeiro, Montagner participated in the annual meeting of the League of Universities of Brazil, Russia and Belarus – an entity created in 2024 with the participation of Unicamp.
During the event, new contacts were established, in addition to discussions being resumed involving universities with which Unicamp already maintains partnerships, such as HSE University, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow State Institute of International Relations and Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University.
The event also marked the renewal of the agreement signed between Unicamp and the State Institute of International Relations and the signing of two new cooperation agreements, with the Belarus State University and the Moscow State University of Languages.
“The two events contributed immensely to strengthening institutional relations between the participating universities, in the context of the BRICS+ bloc, allowing for closer ties with new universities and the planning of international collaboration actions with institutions that are already partners of Unicamp,” said the director of the Executive Board of International Relations (Deri) at Unicamp, Professor Rafael Dias.
Brazil-China Rectors' Forum
In addition to the two events in Rio de Janeiro, the Unicamp rector participated, on June 2 and 3, in Brasília, in the Brazil-China Rectors Forum, organized by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes) in partnership with the Chinese Association of Education for International Exchange.
According to Montagner, the meeting aimed to foster dialogue and international cooperation between higher education institutions in both countries, strengthening partnerships in the academic, scientific and innovation areas.
The meeting allowed the signing of a new agreement between Unicamp and the National School of Elite Engineering at Beijing Jiaotong University. This agreement seeks to establish the terms of a future cooperation action from different areas of engineering.
“I believe that the event was an important forum for connecting Unicamp with several Brazilian and Chinese universities present there. Important contacts were established that could be used in the development of future internationalization actions at Unicamp,” said the rector.
