Brasillinois

Brasillinois is an initiative that builds on the unique potential of the University of Illinois System to create a new model for collaboration between U.S. higher education and the Global South. The initiative leverages our already comprehensive hub of research collaboration to build a research and mobility network that includes other Illinois institutions, partners among the Great Lakes Consortium, and other institutional partners in North America. Brasillinois draws on faculty expertise and programs across the University of Illinois System to pursue collaborative research and mobility initiatives organized in three clusters: Climate and Sustainability, Public Health and Medicine, and Democracy and Inclusion.

Climate and Sustainability 

This will include a focus on Amazonian initiatives and the 2025 Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress. The initiatives among Illinois partners include the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Amazon+10 and Fulbright Amazonia programs. Climate programs will include joint research projects with the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). This cluster also develops areas including food security, water resources, bioeconomy, and atmospheric sciences. Efforts building on longstanding research collaborations in crop sciences, sustainability, water resources, and environmental sciences have been foundational for Illinois’ relationship with Brazil.

Public Health and Medicine 

We will pursue initiatives focused on increasing life expectancy based upon data and community initiatives that combine experiences and practices in Illinois and Brazil with pilot programs in urban and rural communities, and establishing cohort studies in Illinois and Brazil that build longitudinal health data sets. These efforts build on research networks that connect faculty at the UIC College of Medicine, Carle-Illinois College of Medicine, the UIUC College of Applied Health Sciences, the UIC School of Public Health, and other units across the U of I System with Brazil’s national public health institute, Fiocruz, and FAPESP.

Democracy and Inclusion 

We will pursue collaborative projects to increase global awareness among students from Illinois and Brazil through exchange and mobility programs conducted in partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Coordination for Higher Education (CAPES). We will also collaborate with institutional partners at the University of São Paulo and Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro for research on historical and contemporary areas of social inclusion in the two largest democracies of the Americas, including a focus on Brazil’s transition from military rule and on constitutional law.

If you'd like to learn more about Brasillinois or participate in this initiative, email Jerry Davila for more information. Learn more about the system's other international partnerships.

Brasillinois in the News

March 3, 2024: University of Illinois System launches initiative to grow Brazilian collaborations