There is in mathematics a great tradition of scientific cooperation between France and Brazil, whose roots go back at least to the stays of French mathematicians in Brazil like André Weil (in 1945-47), Jean Dieudonné (in 1946-48), or Alexandre Grothendieck (in 1953-54). This cooperation continued at a very sustained pace in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in differential geometry, in dynamical systems and in complex geometry.
The Franco-Brazilian mathematician Artur Avila, winner of the Fields Medal in 2014, is probably the best symbol of these exchanges.
In the early 2000s collaborations between France and Brazil increased substantially in new scientific directions. From this impetus grew up the need to set up an institutional framework allowing to ease these exchanges, which gave birth to the Franco-Brazilian Network of Mathematics (RFBM). In 2002, the RFBM received strong political recognition by the signing of a bilateral agreement by the Ministers in charge of research of the two countries ("Memorandum between the Ministry of Research of the French Republic and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Federative Republic of Brazil").
A new important step was taken in early 2017 with the signing of an agreement to make this network sustainable and to transform it into a “GDRI”. The RFBM partner institutions of both countries include the “CNRS”, the “Ecole Polytechnique”, the “Fondation Sciences Mathématiques” in Paris, the “Fondation Mathématique Jacques Hadamard”, the “universités de l’est parisien” (l’UPEM, l’UPEC, et l’UPE) and the “IMPA” in Rio.
The network currently supports two kinds of program. The first called "bilateral mobility" promotes collaborative projects that involve at least two mathematicians (one working in Brazil and the other one in France) allowing a stay of a few weeks. The aim is to promote joint research leading to co-authored publications between Brazilian and French researchers.
The second program "Intensive Workshop for Young Researchers" is more recent. Such a workshop should bring together young researchers and PhD students working on a specific subject, being assisted in their reading by senior researchers. The organization can take various forms but should involve young researchers and preferably a French and a Brazilian ones.
Applications for funding must be sent by email to br-fr@impa.br and fr.br@math.polytechnique.fr and are evaluated by a scientific committee composed of a dozen Brazilian and French personalities. An answer is usually given within a fortnight’s time. Any mathematician working in France or Brazil is eligible for these unrestricted scientific thematic programs.
For any further information on the network and its operation, please contact Charles Favre, French coordinator of the RFBM, by email or directly see the web page http://www.rfbm.fr/.
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