Brazil-Italy Return: hospitality, exchange and scientific collaboration between universities, research centres and enterprises. This is the objective of CSF - Ciência sem Fronteiras (Science Without Borders), the Brazilian government's initiative that promotes the mobility of Brazilian students and researchers by providing the opportunity to study abroad at the world's best colleges and universities and, at the same time, offers hospitality in Brazil to young foreign researchers and students, currently leaders in a variety of sectors.

This project, which is already in operation in Italy and currently coordinated by the University of Bologna, was recently joined also by the scientific and academic system of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Thanks to the Coordination network of the region's research centres, memorandum of collaboration to Science Without Borders was signed by AREA Science Park, ICGEB (International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology), Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico TS, SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati), the University of Trieste, the University of Udine and OGS (National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics) and, as of this year, they will welcome a number of Brazilian scholarship holders, thus consolidating the scientific partnership with the South American Country.

Being internationally oriented and drawing on its multi-sectoriality as well as on the numerous scientific and teaching collaborations currently under way, the scientific system of Friuli Venezia Giulia can offer Brazilian students and researchers a wide range of sectors and specializations of excellence. The areas concerned by the program are in fact numerous: natural sciences, life sciences, sustainable farming, earth sciences, environment monitoring and protection, engineering, Information and communication technology, biotechnology, oceanography, renewable energy sources, creative industry and development of innovative projects. Finally, Brazilian students and researchers can benefit from an integrated reception system promoted by the FVG Welcome Office, the single regional office in charge of pre-arrival information and on-site assistance dedicated to those that, each year, decide to study or carry out research in the region.

Currently, fourteen Italian institutions have signed an agreement with the two agencies of the Brazilian Government, CAPES and CNPq, creating a network for the exchange of students, scientists and scholars. The first stage of the program, for the 2011-2015 period, will witness the granting of over 100 thousand scholarships for studies and internships throughout the world. More than 3000 Brazilian scholarship holders have come to Italy (undergraduates, postgraduates and post-doctoral researchers) since the program started in 2012. Thanks to the success of the Brazilian Government's project a new CSF (Science Without Borders) multi-year plan is expected to be confirmed in the near future with double the amount of funds available.