Brazil and the European Union (EU) signed an agreement on Thursday to strengthen cooperation in the area of science and technology.

As part of the agreement, inked during the 6th Brazil-EU summit currently underway in Brazil's capital Brasilia, Brazil will send 100 researchers to EU research institutes and universities within the framework of the Science Without Borders academic exchange program.

The program enables Brazilian researchers to travel to research centers in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy and work in projects of special interest to the Brazilian government, such as natural disaster prevention and crisis management, climate change, sustainable management of natural resources, nanotechnology and energy.

The new agreement represents an expansion of the Science Without Borders program, a scholarship initiative established by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in her first year of government. The program has already sent undergraduate and postgraduate students to institutions in Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania.

Some 18,000 students have benefited from the program and the government expects that figure to reach 100,000 by 2014, in a bid to boost Brazil's innovation capacity and competitiveness.

At the ongoing summit, Brazil and the EU also signed a memorandum of intent to work together on ensuring meat quality in food production.

Signed by President Rousseff and European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, the memorandum assumes particular significance as Brazil recently reported an isolated case of the " mad cow" disease.