South and Central America

Several South and Central American countries have made strong technological and scientific advances within areas that are interesting to Norwegian research environments. Moreover, these countries possess resources, cultural legacies, traditions, organisations and a willingness to change that provide an excellent basis for comparative studies and research cooperation in many realms.

Recent decades have seen the emergence of widespread collaboration between Norwegian and South and Central American researchers in many fields. Traditionally, much of Norway's development cooperation research was centred on these countries. Norwegian research into poverty prevention and global development issues will maintain this focus over the next decade.

While research cooperation with this region will continue to revolve around development cooperation issues, other areas of interest include environmental challenges in the Antarctic, development of trade and industry in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico as well as cultural heritage, traditions and religion throughout the continent. It is a strategic challenge for the Research Council to further develop such collaborative projects in order to lay the foundations for enhancing quality and relevance in R&D, increasing the knowledge-base for Norwegian policies and promoting broad-based internationalisation of Norwegian research.