National Institute of Biology has signed international academic cooperation agreement with the Institute of Chemistry - Instituto de Quimica at the University of São Paulo, Brazil

The purpose of this agreement is to foster the exchange of professors and researchers at all levels between the two institutions. The agreement was signed by Director of the National Institute of Biology Prof. Dr. Tamara Lah Turnšek, Dean of the Institute of Chemistry (Instituto de Quimica) at the University of São Paulo Prof. Dr. Luiz Henrique Catalani, Head of the Department of Biochemistry at this Institute Prof. Dr. Henning Ulrich, and Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia in Brazil HE Ms Milena Šmit as an honorary witness. University of São Paulo is the best university in South America and ranks  as 39th on the Shanghai rankings of world universities, therefore this event was of great value for NIB and is considered an  important step in strengthening cooperation between the two countries, both on institutional and national level. Minister Plenipotentiary of the Economic Section of the Embassy in São Paulo Ms Kristina Radej and other distinguished guests, including the President of the Association of Expat Slovenians Mr Martin Črnugelj, were also present at the ceremonial event.

National Institute of Biology has been actively cooperating with various scientific institutions in Brazil in all areas of its activity, including environmental studies of the impact of insecticides on the introduction of new plant species, the impact of global warming on biodiversity, ecotoxicology, and biomedicine. All these topics have a strong impact on all relevant economic activities where Brazil is the strongest Latin American economic power. It is certainly the most important scientific research partner since it has recently also boosted global cooperation with the program Science without Borders - Ciência sem fronteiras. Within this program also Prof. Dr. Tamara Lah Turnšek is currently working as a visiting professor at USP.

Cooperation  between NIB and many Brazilian scientific institutions dates back to the year 2004 - Prof. Dr. Alenka Malej established cooperation with the University of São Paulo in the field of marine biology and Prof. Dr. Andrej Čokl started to cooperate with Embrapo, the largest agricultural institute. In 2009, the first resident Ambassador of Brazil in Slovenia HE Ms Débora Vainer Barenboim and her husband dr. Štefan Bogdan Šalej, president of the Center for Latin America in Ljubljana, visited the National Institute of Biology and prompted us to enhance broader cooperation. In June 2010, at the initiative of the Director of NIB and under the auspices of the Brazilian Embassy, a four-day "Slovenian-Brazilian Scientific Workshop: Health and the Environment" was held at the Marine Biological Station in Piran, organized by Prof. Dr. Bojan Sedmak. The workshop was attended by a delegation of Brazilian scientists and was intended for the exchange of knowledge on health and the environment between Brazilian and Slovenian scientists from various institutions. They also prepared a doctoral program, but it unfortunately did not receive sufficient financial support.