[12/12/2025]
A cooperation agreement signed last week (12/02) with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) will allow the Latin American Center for Physics (CLAF) to award nine annual graduate and postdoctoral scholarships in physics.
The agreement was signed by physicist and science historian Olival Freire Junior, president of CNPq, and experimental physicist Ulisses Barres de Almeida, director of CLAF and researcher at the Brazilian Center for Physics Research.
Starting next year, through 2029, CLAF will annually award six sandwich PhD scholarships and three one‑year postdoctoral scholarships, in both theoretical and experimental physics.
Half of the scholarships in each category will be for Brazilians wishing to go to Latin American countries. The other half will be for students from the region who wish to come to Brazil.
Totaling R$ 4 million (R$ 1 million per year), the agreement establishes that CLAF will be responsible for selecting candidates — a task to be carried out by a management committee. CNPq will be responsible for managing the cooperation program.
Other initiatives and funding
According to Ulisses Barres de Almeida, CLAF is discussing similar programs with the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Faperj), as well as with scientific agencies in Argentina and Chile.
Furthermore, at the 45th Meeting of the CLAF Governing Council, held on December 4 of this year at the CNPq headquarters in Brasília, a regular program of short‑term mobility grants was established. The program will be fully funded with CLAF resources, with up to US$ 20,000 annually, to complement the programs conducted with regional agencies.
More news about CLAF and CNPq:
CLAF: https://claffisica.org.br/
CNPq: https://www.gov.br/cnpq/pt-br