Research Clusters
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.