Vice Principal’s visit to Brazil

Posted 9 October 2012

Harper Adams Vice Principal, Peter Mills, was recently part of a UK Trade and Investment delegation to Brazil.

Approximately 50 delegates from the UK accompanied the Prime Minister, David Cameron and Government Ministers David Willetts, Lord Green and Hugo Swire, on a three-day visit taking in networking events in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia.

Whilst the business delegates focussed on winning contracts for UK companies, largely relating to construction for Rio 2016, the University delegation of around eight UK Universities focussed on discussions around the Science Without Borders (SwB) programme which will involve 10,000 Brazilian undergraduate and postgraduate students spending one year of their degree  programmes in the UK. Harper Adams has been invited to be part of this programme and we expect to be offering places to Brazilian students to start studying at Harper in 2013.

Professor Mills also attended the opening by the Prime Minster of the new JCB factory near Sao Paulo. Professor Mills said: “This provided an opportunity to explore how our strong links with the company could be further developed within the SwB programme through placements and research.

“There was an opportunity during the visit to discuss possible joint ventures with other delegates and importantly, to speak with David Cameron about the new developments at Harper Adams incorporating the National Centre for Precision Farming.”