Nicole is a first-year statistics student at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in the city of Porto Alegre, southern Brazil. In August she will be travelling to Rotterdam to attend a one-semester programme in research training in Health Sciences at NIHES-Erasmus MC. Nicole is one of several undergraduate students throughout Brazil to be awarded a Science without Borders scholarship.
Described by her supervisors as resourceful, enthusiastic and a problem-solver, Nicole is currently working as a programmer on a statistical team of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health. This study looks at associations between chronic diseases and biological, behavioural, occupational, social and environmental factors.
The training course at Erasmus could not have come at a better time for Nicole, who is interested in becoming a biostatistician. Statistics students in Brazil have few opportunities to gain practical experience, especially when it comes to biostatistics, and she wants to improve her knowledge. Knowledge the 22-year-old intends to take back with her to Porto Alegre and apply in the study she is working on.
About Science without Borders – SwB
Science without Borders is a large-scale scholarship programme created and financed by the Brazilian government. It offers Brazilian top students the opportunity to study at a higher education institution in the Netherlands or to carry out research there. Grants are allocated at three levels: bachelors, PhD and post-doctoral.
About the Netherlands Institute for Health Sciences – NIHES
The Netherlands Institute for Health Sciences (NIHES) is an alliance of leading Dutch universities and research institutes that collaborate on quantitative medical and health research. In our Master of Science programmes and short courses, we provide graduate and postgraduate research training in quantitative medicine and the health sciences. We have five core disciplines – Epidemiology, Clinical Epidemiology, Genetic Epidemiology, Public Health, and Medical Informatics – and four key partners: Erasmus University Rotterdam, the University of Amsterdam, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, and the Netherlands Cancer Institute.
Fernanda Mezzomo Collares is a 25 year old student from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
Gilson Gabriel Viana Veloso, a 22 year old fifth-year Medicine student at the Pythagoras College in the city of Montes Claros, southeastern Brazil.
Laura Pletsch Borba is a 22-year-old medical student, from Porto Alegre, Brazil. She attends Pontifical Catholic University from Rio Grande do Sul, situated in her hometown.