From June 2 to 4, the Science Museum in London will exhibit a sample of scientific production developed in the state of São Paulo and the United Kingdom in areas such as artificial intelligence, energy transition, and health. The century-old museum, founded in 1857, will host FAPESP Week London.
Organized in cooperation with the Science Museum, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Royal Society, the British Academy, and the UK Science and Technology Network (STN) in Brazil, with the support of the Brazilian Embassy in London, the event aims to consolidate and expand scientific partnerships in strategic areas of mutual interest between researchers from São Paulo and the UK.
This will be the third time that FAPESP will hold the symposium in England – with previous editions in 2013 and 2019 – reinforcing the role of the United Kingdom as the second main scientific partner of the state of São Paulo in terms of shared research production on the global stage, behind only the United States.
“Holding this third edition in the United Kingdom attests to the capacity for joint scientific production between the region and the state of São Paulo,” Raul Machado, manager of institutional relations at FAPESP, tells Agência FAPESP .
The academic sessions will bring together scientists from both countries to discuss advanced research results and identify new opportunities for joint funding. The debates are aligned with FAPESP’s strategic funding axes and will cover topics such as energy transition; health, health data, and precision medicine; artificial intelligence and data for society; biodiversity, bioeconomy and circular economy; sustainable use of resources; and museums, heritage, and society.
One of the main highlights of this edition is the inclusion of a debate on the relevance of science museums in disseminating knowledge, connecting the vocation of the British institution to the São Paulo experience. The program will include the participation of the Butantan Institute, which will take a joint exhibition project to England.
“Including museums was an intentional choice to give space to this type of dissemination. We’re bringing the Butantan, which is an institution associated with intense technological development activity,” explains Machado. In addition, artificial intelligence (AI) will act as a cross-cutting theme throughout the program. “AI is permeating everything from health to technological innovation; these are the keywords of the meeting.”
The Brazilian delegation will also follow a parallel agenda of visits to cutting-edge innovation environments in the British ecosystem, including the Data Science Institute – the data science and AI hub of the London School of Economics (LSE), Genomics England – a UK government company created in 2013 with the goal of integrating genomic medicine into the British public health system (NHS), and the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult – a non-profit center of excellence established by the British government with the mission of accelerating the development and manufacture of cell and gene therapies.
Five deep-tech companies (science and technology-based startups) supported by the Innovative Research in Small Businesses Program (PIPE) will participate in the event's discussion sessions, in their respective areas of expertise. These are: SleepUp, Inovia, Fubá Educação Ambiental, @Tech, and Ciclou.
Increased Collaboration
Now in its 27th edition, the FAPESP Week symposium series, organized since 2011, has created opportunities and facilitated cooperation, consolidating and expanding partnerships between researchers from the state of São Paulo and colleagues from around the world.
More than bringing researchers closer institutionally, the practical effect of FAPESP Weeks is evidenced by the significant growth in the volume of collaborative research after the meetings, emphasizes Machado.
After the event in Germany in March 2025, for example, the number of collaborative research proposals submitted to FAPESP jumped from 294 to 582, representing an increase of almost 98%. A similar scenario was observed in Spain, where an edition of the meeting was held in November 2024 and proposals increased from 283 to 471 (a rise of 66.4%), and in France, which hosted the event in June 2025 and recorded 51.3% growth, going from 374 to 566 submitted projects.
Even in smaller scientific communities, such as in Uruguay, where the event took place in November 2025, the symposium’s stimulus proved robust, causing submissions to jump from 18 to 51 proposals. These numbers consolidate FAPESP’s strategy of focusing on in-person forums to transform institutional dialogue into real and measurable scientific cooperation, Machado notes.
“International partners, in theory, are already regular collaborators. But when you hold an in-person and focused event of this size, attention turns entirely to cooperation, and that triggers a surge in the number of research proposals,” the manager explains.
The organizers expect FAPESP Week London to replicate this historic success, turning the three days of debates into a new wave of joint projects funded by FAPESP and its partners, thereby boosting the internationalization of science produced in the state of São Paulo.