Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, was selected as one of the 19 U.S. universities and colleges to participate in the 2012 Brazil Initiative of the Institute of International Education International Academic Partnership Program (IAPP). The IAPP is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The program is designed to support U.S. universities in deepening and broadening their relationships with universities in a single country.
Rutgers' participation in IAPP-Brazil stems from the university’s long history of collaboration with Brazilian institutions of higher education. Over the years, faculty have established close partnerships with universities in Brazil through joint research projects, study abroad, and undergraduate and scholarly exchanges; Rutgers has been collaborating with some of its current partners for many decades.
Since the 1970’s, the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) has taken part in FIPSE-CAPES undergraduate exchanges in biotechnology with the University of Sao Paulo. Graduate students in Plant Biology and Biotechnology can participate in a Tripartite Graduate Program between USP, Rutgers, and Ohio State University, or the NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) that focuses on developing renewable and sustainable fuel.
Rutgers faculty collaborate with Brazilian universities in numerous disciplines, from childhood studies to public health, social work, art history, mathematics, and engineering, and offer a wide variety of relevant courses through the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies, and the Center for Latin American Studies.