MIT Sloan to partner with new research and education effort in Brazil
Sustainable development is focus of program with Vale Technological Institute
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In its latest international partnership, the MIT Sloan School of Management is today signing an agreement with Brazil’s newly formed Vale Technological Institute (ITV) to collaborate on a range of academic and research efforts aimed at innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable development. ITV, which was established in 2009 as a non-profit, post-graduate research and teaching institution by Vale, the world’s second largest diversified mining company, has already begun to recruit students in Brazil. ITV will eventually open three institutes, the first of which will be in the Amazon region of Brazil. “ITV wants to become a leading center for research and training about innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable development,” said ITV Director Luiz Mello, the former vice provost at the Federal University of São Paulo. “Since those are also priorities at MIT Sloan, this collaboration will greatly enhance the research and training activities of both institutions.”
MIT Sloan Deputy Dean Richard Locke is in Brazil to sign the memorandum of understanding with ITV. “MIT Sloan’s strategy in developing international partnerships is to focus on large, dynamic, emerging markets,” said Locke, who has been involved with Brazil for more than a decade. “This agreement with ITV further enhances our visibility and impact in those markets, giving our students and faculty important academic and research opportunities.”
Locke said the Vale-MIT Sloan relationship began with a series of executive education programs going back to 2004. Since then, more than 450 of Vale’s top managers have participated in executive education programs in Cambridge and Brazil. Vale has also hired MIT Sloan graduates and it has supported research projects at MIT.
Among other things, the new agreement will provide scholarships for ITV researchers to study at MIT for six months. It creates an exchange program for students in MIT Sloan’s Global Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Business laboratories to work on projects in partnership with ITV. The agreement also calls for MIT faculty to conduct two seminars each year in Brazil on themes linked to ITV efforts.
The MIT Sloan-ITV project will also enable each institution to develop closer ties with each other’s partners. MIT Sloan, for example, will help ITV connect to management schools with which MIT Sloan collaborates in China, Russia, India, and Korea, among other places. And MIT Sloan will gain from ITV’s links to leading Brazilian universities.
“Our goal at MIT Sloan is to establish a network of centers for excellence and management education across the world, with us as the hub of that network,” said Locke. “We will not only interact with our partners, but they will interact with each other.”
About MIT Sloan School of Management
For over fifty years, the MIT Sloan School of Management, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been one of the world's leading academic sources of innovation in management theory and practice. With students from more than 60 countries, it develops effective, innovative, and principled leaders who advance the global economy.
About Vale Technology Institute
ITV is a non-profit post-graduate research and teaching institution focused on innovation in strategic areas. In 2009, Vale announced the construction of three ITV centers in the states of Minas Gerais, Pará and São Paulo. Recruitment of researchers and of students is due to begin in the second half of this year.
Partnerships with the National Council for Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) and the state research promotion agencies of Pará (Fapesap), Minas Gerais (Fapemig) and São Paulo (Fapesp) have resulted in joint projects involving resources of more than R$130 million. ITV has also signed partnership arrangements with some of Brazil’s leading universities (USP, ITA, UFMG, UFRJ, etc.).
Written by: MIT Sloan School of Management