Engage Amazonia 2025

Dates: 25-27 February 2025, with 26 February the centrepiece

Location: University of Birmingham

UBBI will host a Brazilian Carnaval celebration to celebrate our place on our planet, the potential to stop or reverse climate change, our research and engagement on diverse global challenges, and the Brazilian community residing in the Midlands. Through our Carnaval celebration, we celebrate, adding an important cultural component to Engage Amazonia, offering local ways to engage for our staff, students, and the general public.

Date: 2025-2026 academic year

Location: University of Birmingham

Overview: Funded by the British Council International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF) we are delighted to offer three fully-funded Early Career Fellowships for Brazilian researchers to spend a year at the University of Birmingham, working with a UoB academic host in one of the following research areas: Climate Change and Biodiversity; Conservation and Restoration of Natural Capital; Health Systems in the Amazon.

Purpose: This joint collaboration between the University of Birmingham Brazil Institute (UBBI) the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action (BISCA), the Birmingham Institute for Forestry Research (BIFoR) and the Global Health Impact Hub at the University of Birmingham seeks to build and sustain medium to long-term partnerships between the University of Birminhgam and sending institutions, strenghening research capacity at both individual and institutional levels in Amazonian challenges.

Additional Information: The call will open on 15 February 2025 and closes on 15 May 2025, with one year fellowships commencing from September, October or November 2025. Fully-funded fellowships will have an average value of £60K, covering monthly living stipend, travel, visa and insurance costs, IELTS and NHS surcharge.

Dates: April 2024

Location: Belém, Pará, Brazil (depending on availability and interest levels)

Overview: A multidisciplinary match-making event hosted by FAPESPA in Pará, Brazil, and in collaboration with the UBBI, designed to foster connections between researchers in the Amazon region (particularly the state of Pará) addressing some of the most pressing global challenges faced in the Amazon. 

Purpose: The workshop aims to strengthen research collaborations between the University of Birmingham and a diverse group of institutions in Pará, including UFPA, Instituto Carlos Chagas, Museo Emilio Goeldi, EMBRAPA, IFPA, UFRA, CESUPA, UFOPA, UNIFESPA, UEPA, and CISAM (the new Integrated Center for Amazonian Sociobiodiversity). By building interdisciplinary partnerships, we seek to advance research on key Amazonian challenges and related disciplines from a broad spectrum of science and humanities. This includes the themes of global change, energy transition, green economy, public health, bioeconomy, sustainable development, sustainable agriculture, gender equality, traditional knowledge, indigenous rights, biodiversity and forest restoration. This match making will allow researchers to apply for future funding calls including:

• Amazon 10+: Collaborative call between Brazil state funding agencies, UKRI, British Council and other international partners. Next call to be launched in November and to focus on solutions to Amazonian challenges. 
• UBBI-Amazonia Joint Fund: to be launched in November to strengthen collaborations between Amazonia and UoB. 
• UBBI-CAPES/Chico Mendes Chair Programme in Environmental Sciences, Climate Change, Ecosystems, Sustainability, Societies and Environment which supports an annual visiting Chair appointment, associated one-year postdoctoral and sandwich PhD fellowships at the UBBI. 
• Engage Amazonia 2025 Early Career Fellowships in Research and Innovation: call opens 15 February and closes 15 May 2025 for three fully-funded one year fellowships for Brazilian ECRs to spend the 2025-2026 academic year at the UBBI and BISCA working on Amazonian challenges.

Application: 

Complete short expression of interest form

Additional Information: 

If the workshop takes place in person, UBBI will cover the travel and accommodation costs of up to 8 Birmingham academic participants, who require travel financial support. The University of Birmingham will provide translation services among participants.

Dates: Spring 2025

Overview: The proposed call will fund joint collaborative research projects in any discipline, up to a maximum of £20,000, over a duration of 12 months. The fund covers research-related expenses directly pertaining to the project, as well as travel (air tickets), health insurance, and living allowances for researchers based in Birmingham and Amazonian institutions. 

Purpose: The seed fund aims to foster research collaborations between academics from UoB and Amazonia to build capacity and advance research on key Amazonian challenges and related disciplines from a broad spectrum of science and humanities. This includes the themes of global change, energy transition, green economy, public health, bioeconomy, sustainable development, sustainable agriculture, gender equality, traditional knowledge, indigenous rights, biodiversity and forest restoration.

Date: July 2025

Location: Caxiuanã Forest Scientific Station, Pará

Overview: Delivered in partnership with Emílio Goeldi Museum of Pará, UFPA and FAPESPA, the Amazonia immersion will build capacity among undergraduate students from UoB and Pará, including indigenous students from the Brazilian Amazon region, to co-create adaptive practices and solutions to promote the well-being of Amazonian ecosystems and its peoples. By bringing together and training the next generation of scientists and scholars, the international school will explore existing and new ways of relating to the environment (human-nature relations), that may help counteract and adapt to global present and future challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation, and the loss of traditional knowledge.

Purpose: Using a co-creation of knowledge approach across generations, disciplines, nationalities, and ethnic backgrounds, we aim to deliver a unique educational experience that will build global bridges of friendship and train generations of ‘future-makers’ across the Amazon region and the world through an international immersion and a delegation to COP30 in Brazil. This knowledge exchange and collaboration across (a) diverse communities across the Amazon region, (b) global student communities from the UK and the Brazilian Amazon region, (c) academia and traditional indigenous knowledge(s) is essential for fostering innovation, building long-term resilience, and promoting sustainable development.

Application: Student video essay competition.

Additional Information: UBBI will provide pre-departure language and cultural training and translation services to support UoB participants. We anticipate a minimum of 24 students on the programme: 8 from UoB, 8 from UFPA and 8 indigenous student participants. We are currently looking into extending the programme to include students from across Amazonia. UBBI will cover the travel and accommodation costs of Birmingham participants. We also invite 4 UoB staff, involved in the Engage Amazonia programme, to participate in and contribute to the curriculum.

Date: November 2025

Location: Belém, Pará

Overview: A delegation of Amazonian Immersion students will attend COP 30 as part of an event at the Brazilian pavilion led by the Ministry of Environment, facilitating knowledge sharing, networking, and youth advocacy.

Purpose: In the medium and long-run, this knowledge exchange will lead to informing innovative policies that respect the integration of different worldviews and approaches to nature conservation, resilience of ecosystems, and human wellbeing, based on a plurality of lived experience.

Additional Information: The University of Birmingham will cover the travel and accommodation costs of Birmingham academics and students. Given constraints on access and accommodation, we anticipate that the delegation will involve 3 UoB students and up to 4 staff.