At the end of September, around 1,600 national and international researchers – the highest number of attendees to date – came together for the 28th annual meeting of the Brazilian Materials Research Society (SBPMat) in the southern Brazilian coastal resort of Balneário de Camboriú. [...] During the conference, countless attendees from the fields of materials science, chemistry, physics and engineering sciences seized the opportunity to receive comprehensive advice on research and funding opportunities in Germany and to find out more about programmes for academic exchange and bilateral research cooperation at the Research in Germany booth. On 24 September, there was also a lunch session entitled "Material Bonds: Brazilian-German Exchanges in Material Research". A mixed audience, consisting of almost 200 students, doctoral researchers, postdocs and experienced researchers, listened to the presentations of participating researchers and the funding institutions in attendance. [...] Prof. Dr. Joachim Heberle from the department of Experimental Molecular Biophysics of the Free University of Berlin contributed as a member of the “Research Ombudsman” statutory body established by the DFG and, making reference to examples of scientific misconduct, informatively explained how it was founded and how the Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice were compiled – a topic that is currently the subject of intense debate in Brazil. [...]

Please read the full article by the DFG Office in Latin America here.