About a year ago I (Jappe de Best) received a request from Claudio Mudadu, a professor that I met several times on my trips to Belo Horizonte and who received several Dutch students for an internship at Universidade Federal de Vicosa (UFV). He asked if I would be willing to receive one of his PhD students. This student received a sandwich PhD grant from Capes PRint and wanted to come to The Netherlands to do part of her research at Avans-MNEXT. She was especially interested in pyrolysis and LCA. Two main research topics of my research group. I liked the idea immediately because I think it is a perfect way to further develop cooperation within the living lab, and it offers PhD students the opportunity to go abroad. Since it was the first time for a PhD exchange within the Living lab Brazil it took a bit of time arranging the exchange, but it was worthwhile waiting. In September 2023, Bruna joined my research group. During her stay she has been able to link the research that she did in Brazil with the research we do at Avans-MNEXT. It definitely enriched our knowledge and experience and will also lead to 2 nice publications.
When end of last year I got another request for a PhD exchange, this time from Sonia Carvalho Ribeiro from UFMG, it was not hard to say yes. In April2024, Ana Carolina Mendes dos Santos came to Avans-MNEXT for a stay of 3 months. Ana receives a grant from Programa de Doutorado-sanduíche no Exterior (PDSE) from Capes to fund her exchange. During her stay she looks into drivers and barriers in the implementation of the circular bioeconomy in the Netherlands and how this could help implementation of circular bioeconomy in Brazil. I think it is very nice that in this way we can learn from each other.
All-in all, I am very happy with the first 2 PhD exchanges that we realized within the living lab Brazil. I can recommend it to everyone, and I would be very happy to receive more PhD students in future.
If you want to know more about the grant that Bruno and Ana received you can look here:
- Programa Institucional de Internacionalização – CAPES - PrInt
- Programa de Doutorado-sanduíche no Exterior (PDSE)
If you want to know more about the experiences of Bruna you can read an interview with her: https://www.biobasedbrazil.org/2023/11/23/phd-on-waste-management/.
Jappe de Best
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