Brazil

Brazil is one of the International Alliance’s target areas where the Université de Lyon is developing close relations with the State of São Paulo. The University of São Paulo (USP), the main academic partner, has also identified the Université de Lyon as an important strategic partner.

The Université de Lyon has set up a structured collaboration with the USP, in terms of both training and research. It offers dual-qualification training courses, scientific workshops, start-up funds and calls for joint research projects.

In 2020, the Université de Lyon is pursuing this approach by signing a framework agreement with the FAPESP funding agency (the São Paulo Research Foundation) to gain exposure and to get involved in bilateral actions with the three São Paulo State Universities (USP, Unicamp and Unesp), supported by cross-financing and reciprocal funding.

This close relationship with Brazil has led the Université de Lyon to open a representative office at the University of São Paulo.

As part of the Triangular International Higher Education Partnerships (PITES), the USP on the one hand and the Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Lumière Lyon 2 and Jean Monnet universities on the other hand joined together to create a delocalized Bachelor's degree in 2014. The purpose of this Bachelor's degree is to train selected USP students in French Law, in addition to Brazilian Law. It takes place over 3 years, with on the one hand subjects taught at USP for which equivalencies are granted and on the other hand lessons in French Law, delivered in São Paulo by teachers from the site.

At the end of their Bachelor's degree, which lasts 5 years in Brazil, students hold a double Bachelor's degree, one from the University of São Paulo and the other from one of the universities of the Lyon Saint-Étienne. Each year, around ten UdL professors travel to Brazil to provide classes for promotions of around fifty students. The first class of this Bachelor's degree, made up of 20 students, graduated in 2017.

The next stage of the PITES project is the relocation of the second year of the French Master's degree in Law, with a specialization in Business Law, allowing the establishment of a Franco-Brazilian “Economic Law” course for students of the Faculty of USP Law.

► Read Luisa Mesquita's portrait - who graduated from the distance learning dual-diploma program in São Paulo

Scientific collaborations between the Lyon and São Paulo universities go back a long way. They have been supported by the French PALSE and IDEXLYON programs, as well as by Brazilian funding to set up start-up funds and/or calls for joint projects.

A new call for projects was launched in 2019 in order to support innovative, ambitious and highly structured joint research projects based on high priority areas of research for a three-year period.

The Université de Lyon-FAPESP partnership focuses on developing high-level scientific and technological cooperation in all fields of knowledge between the UdL institutions and the universities of the State of São Paulo. This is achieved by jointly funding scientific activities (such as exchanges, workshops, seminars, etc.) and, in particular, research projects.

As part of this partnership, the Université de Lyon organized the French FAPESP week in November 2019, which was followed by a FAPESP-UdL joint call for projects in 2020. This call for projects aims to support research projects launched by the UdL member institutions and higher education institutions in State of São Paulo that focus on top priority research subjects.

The Université de Lyon provides support for launching international laboratories and projects that fall within the IDEXLYON project’s priority areas:

The “Anthropogenic Era, Metropolization and Societies” international Project
The Université de Lyon supports the “Value of territories in the Anthropogenic Era” research project, which focuses on sociology and land development. This project, which involves the USP Institute of Architecture and Urban Development (IAU-USP) and the “Environment, City & Society” Joint Research Unit, is closely linked to the “Anthropogenic Era, Metropolization and Societies” international research project (IRP).
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The French-Brazilian James Clerk Maxwell International Associated Laboratory (Laboratoire international associé – LIA)
Created in 2009, it originally included the University of São Paulo’s Polytechnic School, the Federal Universities of Santa Catarina and Minas Gerais in Brazil, and the Université de Lyon (the Ampère joint research units, the LIA host institution until 2016) and the Université Grenoble Alpes in France.
It was renewed for 2013-2016 and then widened to include other structures (the Maxwell 2 IRP) from 2017-2020. This IRP specializes in researching digital methods in the field of electrical engineering and reflects the strong structural cooperation between France and Brazil.
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