The rector of Unicamp, Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles, received, this Friday afternoon (31), the ambassador of Nepal in Brazil, Nirmal Raj Kafle. At the meeting, they discussed possibilities for carrying out partnership and collaboration actions between Unicamp and at least two Nepalese universities, Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University – both headquartered in Kathmandu, the country's capital. This was the first contact of representatives from the country with Unicamp.
The ambassador said that Nepal wants to expand collaboration actions with higher education institutions in Brazil, especially in the areas of energy transition, research on solar energy and also computing.
“In fact, we are making a first contact to understand in which areas we can try to open a cooperation channel. For now, we are still looking for information about the existing possibilities”, explained professor Mahendra Prasad Panthee, who works at the Institute of Mathematics and Scientific Computing (Imecc) at Unicamp. Panthee is Nepalese and accompanied the ambassador to the meeting.
He said that, in addition to having made contact with Unicamp, the ambassador visited several public universities in Paraná and Santa Catarina.
Nepal is an Asian country in the Himalayan region, located between Tibet and India. With no coastline, it is known for being the country where Mount Everest is located, the highest point on earth, with more than 8.500 meters high.
Unicamp does not register any agreement or partnership with Nepalese institutions. The only existing contacts so far were the passages through Unicamp of two students, both graduate students. The first, in 2008 and the second, in 2011. There is no record of Unicamp professors or students who have had any passage through Nepali universities.
Professor Alfredo Barbosa de Melo, advisor to the Executive Board of International Relations (DERI), recalled that today's meeting is just the first and that, as a result, negotiations are still in their initial phase.
“Despite being the first contact, it seems to me that the negotiations are well underway and I think we have a path to tread together”, evaluated the professor. The dean said he sees this possibility of cooperation with optimism. He recalled that Unicamp has a vocation for relating to the world and has dedicatedly adhered to the idea of the 2030 Agenda and the goals of sustainable development.
“These things speak to many countries in the world. And, in this respect, we have a characteristic that is both having things that bring us very close to the developed world, as well as issues that put us in conversation with countries in the developing world”, ponders the dean.
“The fact is that the axis of the economic world today has a much greater weight on the Asian side. It is also important for us to expand these collaborative actions”, he said. “An eventual partnership is still very embryonic, but I have a lot of expectations. It depends, of course, on us finding the channels”, concluded the dean.
Originally published on Unicamp website
