Magalhaes network steering committee meets in Brazil

The Steering Committee (SC) of the Magalhaes University Network, chaired by PoliTO professor Roberto Zanino - accompanied by the Secretariat composed of Elisa Armando, Alberto Godio and Piergiorgio Rossi - was welcomed on May 14-16 at the headquarters of the three network members in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo - the Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) and the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) - where the steering committee visited the facilities and met with academic authorities.

Those three universities occupy the first, third, and eighth place, respectively, in the QS 2025 ranking of universities in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, and are collectively recipients of funding from the state of Sao Paulo amounting to about 10 percent of the Imposto sobre Circulação de Mercadorias e Serviços.  The state of Sao Paulo in turn contributes about 32 percent to Brazil's GDP, which is now ranked tenth among world economies (and top of the LAC region) in GDP.

The steering committee had a number of topics on its agenda: from ongoing actions under Pillars I (MSCA) and II of Horizon Europe, to developing opportunities under Erasmus+, collaborating with European Chambers of Commerce in LAC, welcoming possible new network members from both sides of the Atlantic, internationalizing the European University Alliance Unite! in LAC by leaning on the network, and finally of implementing the TNE HerIT4Future project with a joint action between the Politecnico di Torino and the universities in the LAC region at the doctoral level in energy, again leaning on the network.

In the meetings with local academic authorities, there was unanimous interest in the developments the network is trying to pursue on research and doctoral front, as well as the intention to develop a common rationale to submit to the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), i.e., the research support foundation of the State of São Paulo, for co-funding of related activities.

Among the facility visits, the visit to the Numerical Offshore Tank Laboratory (Ship Maneuvering Simulation Center) was particularly interesting.

Finally, part of the Magalhaes steering committee meeting was dedicated to defining the program for the next General Assembly of the network, which will be held at PoliTO on November 3^rd-5^th later this year, which will include the celebrations of the first 20 years of the network, as well as to defining the publishing plan for a volume dedicated to this anniversary.

Professor Zanino next visited the Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, the largest in all of Paraguay, a country not currently represented in the Magalhaes network, meeting with its rector, Professor Zully Concepcion Vera de Molinas. They talked about internationalization, at the center of the South American university's strategic plan, and energy, including nuclear energy, an issue considered very important for Paraguay's future further development. Before returning to Europe, Professor Zanino then again met with the Italian Ambassador to Asuncion, Marcello Fondi.