Nicole Gayard is a PhD Candidate at the Program on Science and Technology Policy, State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Harvard STS Program (2015-2016). Her dissertation analyzes the Brazilian South-South Cooperation in Health, focusing on how scientific and technological aspects of health are enacted through cooperation policies undertaken by an emerging country, and in the leading role of national research institutes in its development. The investigation also explores the implications of this international cooperation movement for global health governance, and the relations between international organizations, public and private sectors.

Nicole received a degree in International Relations from the State University of São Paulo. Throughout her graduate research, she aimed to explore how Science and Technology Studies concepts could contribute to the field of International Relations, especially when approaching late industrialized countries and contexts. She has been interested in exploring, through case studies and qualitative inquiries, how international transfers of technologies or science-based policies are enacted, especially through international cooperation channels.

Her dissertation intends to bring into light the social and political particularities upon which Brazilian South-South cooperation is developed. She argues that Brazilian practices are different from other cooperation policies, and are more strongly associated with the values and missions of Brazil’s national foreign policy. The expected rapprochement with developing countries and the promotion of an image of Brazil as a strong country in the international arena is based on the recognition, promotion and use of national science and its scientific institutions. This reinforces the imaginary of Brazil as an innovative country in many areas, albeit loosely integrated in the international scientific community.

During her time with the STS Program, Nicole intends to further her analysis by incorporating the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries and applying an analysis of science and technology policy in different national contexts to study the interplay between “peripheral” and “central” identities when approaching scientific and policy realms in the international arena.