The United States Council on Competitiveness, along with the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development, last week participated in a week’s worth of startup development efforts and cultural exchanges at Arizona State University, to focus on building bilateral partnerships between the two countries that foster innovation and entrepreneurship. According to ASU Senior Vice President for Knowledge Enterprise Development, R.F. “Rick” Shangraw Jr., “[W]hat you see here today is a perfect example of what we should be doing globally: Bringing two countries together to promote competitiveness, advance economic development and create jobs in both countries.” Part of the week’s events included a business competition involving Brazilian graduate student engineers. The winning team had developed a nanotube technology that disperses oil from water and could lead to significantly lower oil spill clean-up costs worldwide. The team spent the week meeting with different ASU groups to discuss the possible commercialization of their technology. Roberto Alvarez of the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI) said “Brazil is a country that is growing. The key issue for us now is promoting innovation. At ABDI, we build bridges, working with agencies and private organizations in Brazil and abroad to develop businesses there, here and in other places.” The article can be viewed online at the link below.