On March 7th, at the Cervantes Institute in São Paulo , on the day before Women's Day, Acebra had the opportunity to meet with the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, accompanied by the Spanish ambassador of Brazil, María del Mar Fernández -Palacios.
From left to right: the vice-president of Acebra, Marcial Fernández, the Spanish ambassador to Brazil, María del Mar Fernández-Palacios, the president of the government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, the president of Acebra, Verónica Arán and the secretary by Acebra, Javier Amadeo.
During the meeting, the president of the association, Verónica Aran, had the opportunity to present Acebra to the Spanish government delegation together with the vice-president, Marcial Fernández, and the secretary, Javier Amadeo. Also present were some of Acebra's members, Juliana Ribeiro, Sandro Fernándes, Yuri Tavares Rocha and Emilio del Moral, who were able to participate and accompany the board of directors at this institutional meeting.
At the meeting, Pedro Sánchez had the opportunity to discuss and learn about Acebra's lines of work and the latest advances in science and cooperation between Spain and Brazil. The association was very grateful for the support from the Spanish Embassy in Brazil, the Ramón Areces Foundation (FRA) and RAÍCEX, without which they would not be able to develop their activity. Likewise, our association had the privilege of personally inviting the president of the government to the next Acebra international meeting and hand-delivered the summary of the association's activities, presented the new board of directors of RAICEX and its decalogue to promote the internationalization of Spain science and innovation system.
During the meeting, opportunities for Acebra to collaborate with the following lines of action were discussed:
· The signing of the 4 Agreements of Understanding between Spain and Brazil, the Agreement between CNPq and the State Research Agency and the agreement between CDTI and FAPESP as essential steps towards consolidating cooperation between the two countries;
· The importance of studying these agreements and discussing how they can be transformed into programs with resources for their implementation;
· The participation of associations in the design of new programs;
· Strengthening institutional cooperation programs, for example, with mobility resources for researchers and students;
· Need for greater support from private companies involved in scientific research.
At the same event we had the opportunity to speak with the director of the Instituto Cervantes de São Paulo, Juan Manuel Casado Ramos, and with the former minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Luque, current president of Hispasat.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has been very receptive and with great interest in knowing the mission and vision of the association. At Acebra we are very grateful for the opportunity to discuss science and cooperation with the highest representatives of the Government of Spain. Likewise, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the support of the Spanish Embassy in Brazil for organizing this unforgettable institutional meeting with our association.
