Latin America Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence

After more than 7 years of innovation and impact the CAPEs project has come to an end, and our Centre is closing today. This will therefore be our final post, before this page is deactivated in mid-November. Thank you for all your support for the business, education and people-to-people links we have enabled between New Zealand and Latin America.

My team and I are delighted to advise that the recording of our LatAm CAPE farewell event is now available on YouTube at https://lnkd.in/dXTyK5n6. If you could only be with us in spirit on Monday here’s your chance to enjoy the celebration we had and to remember what the CAPEs achieved. Until the tide next comes in!

Our Centre's 7 years of impact are coming to an end. On Monday we gathered in Wellington with our partners and friends to celebrate all we've achieved together and the difference we've made to many lives and conversations. It was a wonderful event, and a fitting end to a special mission we've delivered in style. Thank you Steven Joyce for the vision you showed in creating the CAPEs, and to the Tertiary Education Commission for funding us and Victoria University of Wellington for hosting us. Thanks too to those who contributed directly to this special occasion: Matthew O'Meagher Craig Nicholson Jorge Jimenez Castano Nikki Lima Robyn Longhurst Giuliana Silveira Bronwen Kelly Nathan Rahui, Stephen Jacobi, Alexandra Bullot, Vangelis Vitalis, Joseph Michael, and Argentine Ambassador Belén Bogado. And thanks as well to all past and present members of the wider CAPE consortium who honoured us with their presence as we reflected on our contributions and looked to the future of New Zealand-Latin American relations. We knew too that others were with us in spirit -- especially Nicole Freeman, who is representing us on the trade mission to Brazil led by Minister Todd McClay. The photos below give a flavour of our gathering, and before we close next Thursday we'll share its recording, so others can enjoy it too.

We were honoured to partner last week with the Embassy of Argentina in Wellington and the Antarctic Research Centre - Te Puna Pātiotio at Victoria University of Wellington to honour 60 years of bilateral relations between New Zealand and Argentina with an event on 'Argentina and New Zealand in Antarctica: Multilateral Diplomacy and Scientific Collaboration'. After welcomes from our Director and Argentine Ambassador Maria Belen Bogado, our audience of scientists, international relations afficionados and friends of the Embassy lapped up the keynote address from Minister Fausto Lopez Crozet, the National Director for Antarctic Foreign Policy in Argentina's Foreign Ministry. After his inspiring reflections too there was a panel on bilat6eral collaborations in the southern continent with Alice R. from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Tim Naish from the ARC, and Gabriela Roldan, PhD from the University of Canterbury. The evening was a direct consequence of conversations in April in in Buenos Aires during the visit of our academic delegation, and a fitting final thematic offering from us to the New Zealand public.

Exciting progress is being made in New Zealand-Latin America research partnerships!   Over the past two weeks, 16 early career researchers from seven #NewZealand universities have been networking with local experts across Santiago, #Chile and São Paulo, #Brazil focusing on #sustainability. Supported by the #LatAmCAPE, this visit builds on collaborations initiated in April 2024, aiming to foster long-lasting partnerships between New Zealand and Brazil.   Led by Prof. Frank Bloomfield (The University of Auckland), Prof. Neil Dodgson (Victoria University of Wellington), and Prof. Leonel Alvarado (Massey University), the delegation is working to address key sustainability challenges. A special thank you to Renée Zicman: Executive Director of FAUBAI: Brazilian Association of International Education, Dr Teresa Gontijo de Castro (UoA): Visiting Professor at UNIFESP CAPES-Print (Brazil) and Luiz Marcio Spinosa: Director of Science, Technology and Innovation at the Araucária Foundation for Scientific and Technological Development of the State of Paraná (FA) for their participation this morning. We are thrilled to see this growing community of researchers exchanging knowledge and exploring opportunities to make a global impact together! #ResearchCollaboration #ECR #Innovation Nicole Freeman, Nikki Lima, Matthew O'Meagher, Paulo Schmidt, Aldo Nelson Bona

An important update for our Brazilian friends & their academic contacts: those unable to be in São Paulo next week can now attend these sessions virtually. See the link below Renée Zicman José Celso Freire Junior FAUBAI - Associação Brasileira de Educação Internacional Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de S. Paulo - FAPESP Leandro Cavalcanti Craig Nicholson Alexandre Varella Livia Dantas Bruna de Natale Rui Oppermann CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior James Hutchinson Bronwen Kelly Stephen Flint David Schurmann

Our LatAm Biz programme participants have made it back to Aotearoa New Zealand after a fun-filled week spent in São Paulo, Brazil! Our 8 young entrepreneurs learned heaps about business in Brazil, similarities and differences with NZ business practices, and got some great tips from Kiwi and Brazilian businesses about how to successfully enter the Brazilian market. One of our learnings was that Brazil is a huge country with a population of over 215 million, and its massive market is a MASSIVE opportunity for New Zealanders and can create future pathways into other Latin American markets. Throughout the week, students worked on a business challenge in groups with local Brazilian students and did a fantastic job with their presentations. We also got to learn a bit about Brazilian traditions and culture, learnt a few helpful phrases in Brazilian Portuguese, tried samba and capoeira, and ate food from different parts of the country. We ended the trip with some delicious feijoada - Brazil’s national dish! Muito obrigado to our wonderful students, companies, and partners who made this programme possible! campus b Young Enterprise

Oportunidade para Pesquisadores Brasileiros: Networking com Futuros Líderes de Pesquisa da Nova Zelândia em São Paulo!  Nos dias 14 e 15 de outubro, um grupo de Pesquisadores em Início de Carreira (ECRs) da Nova Zelândia estará em São Paulo para dois dias intensos de networking com pesquisadores brasileiros. Essa é uma chance única de construir pontes entre universidades brasileiras e neozelandesas, abrindo portas para colaborações internacionais que podem impactar de forma global a pesquisa científica! Quem pode participar? Pesquisadores brasileiros interessados em expandir suas redes e explorar novas oportunidades de colaboração. Onde? Sala Amazônia, Renaissance Hotel, Alameda Santos, 2233 - São Paulo. Quer saber mais sobre os pesquisadores neozelandeses que estarão presentes? Conheça os perfis aqui: https://lnkd.in/gEbAKZHw Agende sua reunião diretamente neste link: https://lnkd.in/g7ZVSUsh Aproveite essa oportunidade de criar conexões internacionais e elevar sua carreira de pesquisa ao próximo nível!   #Pesquisa #Inovação #Colaboração #Networking #Internacionalização #Cientistas #FuturosLíderes #Brasil #NovaZelândia

The last 3 days of our LatAm Biz programme have been dedicated to learning more about how business is done in Brazil. After a workshop entitled Brazilian Business 101, we had the opportunity to visit a number of successful Kiwi and Brazilian businesses working in different sectors. We got to go to Delicari and Santo Grão and hear firsthand from Kiwis about their journeys starting a business in Brazil, we heard from Ricardo Bovo at Tait Communications and Daniela Ximenes from Seequent, Kiwi companies exporting to Brazil, and we also visited 1 Brazilian company, Natura. Brazil is a huge market with big challenges but even bigger opportunities. All of the lessons learnt will go into the business challenge our students have been working on all week. We’ve managed to squeeze in a little culture too - delicious Brazilian snacks and a Capoeira class.

Our LatAm Biz group has been having a blast in Brazil over the last 2 days with our partners at Young Enterprise and campus b! We started with a bike tour around São Paulo and have enjoyed heaps of traditional Brazilian food. We’ve started our daily Portuguese language and culture lessons and have been introduced to our business challenge as well as the local Brazilian students we’ve teamed up with. We had the privilege of visiting NZTE Latin America and Education New Zealand - Brazil to learn about the existing connections between New Zealand and Brazil and discussed some of the cultural differences between the two countries that impact business and education. Yesterday ended on a high with a phenomenal Samba class, our students nailed it!