It was great to see the partnerships with Brazil harvesting fruit and being recognised by the Funding Agency of the State of Sao Paulo and the British Council this week. Two projects were mentioned involving Joanne Garde-Hansen of the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies, firstly the British Council Researcher Links Workshop Beyond the Digital with Prof Gilson Schwartz (USP) and secondly, the career development of Dr Danilo Rothberg (UNESP) who is now a co-researcher with Joanne on the Narratives of Water Project, (a FAPESP-SPRINT-Warwick project). We will be launching the blog for this soon.

Both projects have explored the creative currencies flowing from and between 'memory projects' in the UK and Brazil, and in particular the communication and media strategies employed in the representation, perception and governance of water in Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and the United Kingdom. In the context of adaptation to increased occurrences to flooding, drought, water security and scarcity, the time is right for more transnational communication on this issue. After all, water circulates globally, and media are also flowing in new directions. Some of this research appears in the newly published Social Memory Technology: Theory, Practice, Action (Routledge), a co-authored book between Joanne and Karen Worcman (Director of the Museu da Pessoa, Sao Paulo). Karen Worcman joined Gilson Schwartz as a visiting researcher in 2014, and the Museu da Pessoa continues to be one of the most important digital museums in Brazil. For more on the UK-Brazil collaborative initiatives see the British Council's Report (in Portuguese) and the news item (in English).

CCPS in colloboration with a range of departments (Theatre Studies, Film&TV, Hispanic Studies, WISC, CIM, WBS and the Connecting Cultures GRP) is delighted to be welcoming two visiting scholars from Brazil as part of the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) Visiting Fellows Scheme. These international visiting fellows will be joining us for a three week visit from the 18th May-8th June 2015. For the first of those weeks we will welcome Dr Carlos Falci (University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte), in the middle week he will be joined by Prof Gilson Schwartz (University of Sao Paulo) and in the final week Prof Schwartz will be with us. For a schedule of activities please click here.

Joanne Garde-Hansen will be running a British Council/FAPESP funded workshop at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil 23rd-24th April. This unique collaboration between Joanne, Prof Gilson Schwartz (USP), Prof Anna Reading (KCL), Prof Michael Pickering (Loughborough), Paulo Nassar (Aberje, Brazil) and Prof Lucia Santaella (PUCSP) tackles the theme of Beyond the Digital - Collective Memory and Social Networks in Emerging Global Conflicts. The methodology of the workshop is a combination of keynotes, discussion activities, presentations, visits, group work and hands-on guidance. The aim is to engage 10 UK Early Career Researchers with 10 Brazilian Early Career Researchers in cross-culturally developing and designing one or more international research proposals with potential to be submitted for funding. The workshop will cover the following:

1) The exploration of innovative areas of media, culture, arts and technology research in the context of global innovation and change

2) The role of memory, heritage, culture, archives and history to an emerging global democracy

3) The debate around the role of economics in cultural exchange from an international perspective

4) To be engaged, generate ideas, communicate and be committed to the workshop

5) To be exposed to new cross-disciplinary, cross-sector and cross-cultural ideas and opportunities

6) To share knowledge for trans-cultural research with a view to tackling future research issues and pathways

Joanne has said: "The workshop presents not only a first for the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies, collaboration with Brazilian researchers, it also lays the foundations for extending the reach of the Centre's influence into Brazil, a key area in our exploration for recruiting the brightest global citizens to our well established postgraduate media, arts, creativity and cultural management programmes."