[Taxacom] Have you ever performed, or have you ever planned to perform, scientific research in Brazil?

[Alexandre Antonelli]

Have you ever performed, or have you ever planned to perform,  
scientific research in Brazil? If yes, please continue below.

Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth, and its many  
ecosystems constitute an intensive area of research for both  
Brazilian and non-Brazilian researchers. To date, however, no  
scientific assessment has been carried out to investigate the  
influence of Brazilian legislation on research involving non- 
Brazilian parties. Therefore we would be very grateful if you would  
be kind enough to fill in an electronic survey on this issue, which  
is estimated to take about five minutes.

We will present the preliminary findings of this project in a  
conference and the final results in an academic journal. Hopefully,  
this study will contribute to the on-going negotiations on Access and  
Benefit Sharing, within the Convention on Biological Diversity.

As far as confidentiality is concerned, the information gathered here  
will be processed and analysed with statistical methods based on  
central trends. This guarantees the confidentiality of individual  
responses when presenting survey results.

In order to minimise biases, it would be convenient to survey both  
positive and negative experiences while dealing or planning to deal  
with the Brazilian authorities to gain permits to conduct research.  
If you know of any colleagues to whom this survey may apply, please  
forward this message to them.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

In the hope that you consider our request favourably, we look forward  
to your valued contribution.

*To begin the survey, go to*
http://www.systbot.uzh.ch/brazil/questionnaire_form.php

With best regards,

Alex

Dr Alexandre Antonelli
Institute of Systematic Botany
Zollikerstrasse 107
CH 8008  Zürich
Switzerland
Ph: +41 (0)44 634 8416
Fax: +41 (0)44 634 8403
alexandre.antonelli at systbot.uzh.ch

&

Victor Rodriguez
TNO, Innovation Policy Group
Wassenaarseweg 56
Leiden 2333 AL
The Netherlands