International cooperation in ST&I: an analysis of the cooperation between the State Foundations for Research Support and the Newton Fund

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the international cooperation in ST&I established in 2014 between the National Council of State Research Support Foundations (CONFAP) and 24 of its Research Support Foundations with the Newton Fund, a British government initiative that aims to promote the social and economic development of its partner countries through research, science, and technology. For this purpose, the article is based on a bibliographic review that allows us to understand the international action of state funding agencies in conjunction with their national representative body and international interlocutor, CONFAP, and the articulation of national actors for the establishment of cooperation in ST&I with the Newton Fund. To enable the analysis of this relationship, the article is divided into three parts, in addition to the introduction and the final remarks: first, it will present the literature that addresses the international action of governments and non-central agencies. The second part presents the case and the operation of the CONFAP/FAPs-Newton Fund partnership. In the third section we analyze the cooperation between the actors based on the literature presented, reflecting on the advances introduced throughout the work. This study has shown the importance of the subnational actors for the support of international cooperation in ST&I, moreover, it was possible to point out that subnational and national actors worked, to some degree, in a complementary way to implement the collaboration discussed.

Keywords

• cooperação internacional
• cooperação descentralizada
• ciência, tecnologia e inovação.