Giving focus to the Cultural, Scientific and Social Dimension of EU - CELAC relations

Mario Albornoz y Rodolfo Barrere en Revista CTS

Desde hace muchas décadas los países de Iberoamérica exploran, con suerte diversa, caminos que los conduzcan al desarrollo. En ese proceso, la cooperación internacional en ciencia y tecnología ha sido siempre valorada como un instrumento imprescindible. Varios organismos internacionales, como UNESCO, OEA, CEPAL y más recientemente la OEI, han jugado un papel destacado al promover la cooperación, capacitar para colaborar en redes internacionales y sensibilizar a los principales tomadores de decisión. Hoy es posible e incluso necesario hacer una recapitulación del camino recorrido, a modo de memoria y balance. Una revisión crítica permite reconocer las trayectorias y ver en perspectiva aciertos y errores. La experiencia nos permite hacer algo más: interpretar los desafíos del presente a la luz de las lecciones recogidas en el camino. Se trata de una tarea necesaria porque, en tiempos de la globalización y de la revolución tecnológica, los escenarios han cambiado radicalmente.

Palabras clave: cooperación; desarrollo; ciencia y tecnología

Trajetórias na cooperação internacional
 Por muitas décadas os países da Ibero-América vêm explorando, com resultados diversos, caminhos que levem ao desenvolvimento. Nesse processo, a cooperação internacional em ciência e tecnologia sempre foi considerada como um instrumento essencial. Várias organizações internacionais, como UNESCO, OEA, CEPAL, e mais recentemente, a OEI, desempenharam um papel de destaque na promoção da cooperação, no treinamento para colaborar nas redes internacionais e na sensibilização dos principais tomadores de decisão. Hoje é possível e até necessário rever o caminho percorrido para recordar e analisar. Uma revisão crítica permite reconhecer as trajetórias e ver em perspectiva os acertos e os erros. A experiência nos permite fazer outra coisa: interpretar os desafios do presente à luz das lições obtidas ao longo do caminho. É uma tarefa necessária porque, em tempos de globalização e revolução tecnológica, os cenários mudaram radicalmente.

Palavras-chave: cooperação; desenvolvimento; ciência e tecnologia

Paths in International Cooperation
 For many decades, Ibero-American countries have explored paths leading to development, with differing degrees of success. During this process, international cooperation in science and technology has always been valued as an essential tool. Several international organizations, such as UNESCO, OAS, ECLAC and more recently OEI, have played an important role in promoting cooperation, collaborating with international networks and educating the main decision-makers. Today it is possible, and even necessary, to look back at the path taken and take stock. A critical analysis lets us recognize the paths and see the successes and mistakes in perspective. Experience allows us to do one more thing: to interpret current challenges in the light of lessons learned along the way. It is a necessary task because, in this time of globalization and technological revolution, scenarios have drastically changed.

Keywords: cooperation; development; science and technology

Seguir leyendo: http://www.revistacts.net/volumen-14-numero-42/361-dossier/898-trayectorias-en-cooperacion-internacional

The “Opportunities for Cooperation between Latin America and Europe” Info Day was held on 10 June from 09.00 a. m. to 4.30 p. m. at the Library of the Science Cultural Centre - C3, Godoy Cruz 2270, CABA. The morning sessions were co-organized with the Observatory of the European Union - Latin American Relations (OBREAL) and the CAMINOS project[1].

It involved 16 speakers (from Argentina, Spain, Italy, Colombia and Ecuador); more than 60 face­to-face attendees and 150 TecTV streaming connections from different institutions in the country and abroad. This last method was used by 141 participants from Argentina, 4 from Chile, 1 from Brazil, 1 from Germany and 2 from other locations. The average view time was 41 minutes.

The main goal of this activity was to promote funding opportunities provided by the European Commission programmes, in particular the European Funding Programme for Research and Innovation 2014-2020 — Horizon 2020, and provide information on how the next framework programme Horizon Europe is being prepared. In that context, it was described how the European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) operate. Also, the EU programme for education, training, youth and sport (Erasmus +) was presented and success stories from Argentina and Latin American countries in the different mobility programmes were showcased.

The discussions held during this day may be summarized as follows:

• In Argentina, a series of institutional efforts are been conducted to promote the submission of joint projects with countries in Latin America and Europe, the result of which is that many successful cases can be identified today. The promotion of available financing tools is still a priority if the quantity and quality of submissions are to be improved. It would be important to continue with outreach and training actions targeted to institutions all over Argentina and other Latin American countries so they can profit from the opportunities offered by the European Union programmes. It is also important to monitor these activities.

• Another important aspect is the presentation of the results of those projects already funded by the European Commission to find continuities and synergies between them. According to the experience of the Liaison Office, this not only will contribute to maximizing project impacts but will also generate proposals on new themes and promote long term duration in the national and regional ecosystems. In addition, many of these already funded projects have outcomes not yet fully exploited that could have a better impact if they are connected to similar ones.

• It must be emphasized that this type of meetings help generate valuable exchanges between stakeholders interested in preparing proposals under programmes with similar schemes, since they get to interact with institutions from other countries and / or with professionals from the same country who have prior experience participating. It is also important to attract stakeholders who had no knowledge about the funding instruments so that representatives of the Liaison Office can advise them in each specific case.

• This time, H2020, MSCA and ERASMUS+ success stories were presented, including a description of how the consortia were set up, joint work approaches used and project impacts, as well as the challenges and limitations faced by each of them to achieve successful results. The agenda was developed in response to the successive consultations about and requests for assistance to participate in European calls received by the Liaison Office.

• The session had great repercussion and much interest was shown in learning about and participating in international projects. Since that day, the different representatives of the Liaison Office have received more than 25 enquiries on specific calls and institutional requests for thematic info days (for more information, see below).

Based on this information session, the Liaison Office ARG-EU is scheduling the actions for the coming months and until the end of the year. The activities will focus on the following three dimensions:

1. Continue carrying out face-to-face or virtual dissemination and training activities in different institutions, looking into the different aspects of international cooperation.
2. Continue assisting in the search for partners in Latin America and Europe to form successful consortiums.
3. Disseminate and advise on the main international cooperation programmes (both for mobility and research) in which Argentine institutions can participate as partners.ASMUS+ programme. Its main goal is to contribute to strengthening the Latin American Higher Education Space by improving the capacity of universities, university associations and networks to enhance, promote and manage regional Latin American student and academic staff mobility. For more information see: https://www.caminosproject.org/.

Upcoming Information Sessions:

The Science Diplomacy Workshop was held at the Samsung Room of the C3, located at Godoy Cruz 2270, in the City of Buenos Aires. It started at 9.00 a.m. and ended at 3.00 p.m. There were 10 speakers and over 50 attendees.

The purpose was to promote the discussion around the science diplomacy concept for future diplomats, so as to encourage the debate and build a national science diplomacy approach.

The workshop was opened by Dr Lino Barañao (Secretariat of Government for Science, Technology and Innovation), Ambassador Aude Maio-Coliche (European Union Delegation in Argentina) and Ambassador Fernando Petrella (Director of the National Foreign Service Institute).

The second session featured expositions by Minister Mariano Jordán, National Directorate for Cooperation and Institutional Integration, who summarized the development of science diplomacy in Argentina, and Dr Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation of the Directorate General for Research and Development at the European Commission, who presented the Union’s general view of science diplomacy.

Next session was led by Dr Alejandra Kern, who presented theoretical contributions to science diplomacy, their respective advances and criticism from the academia.

To see the previously described concepts in action, science diplomacy practical examples were given. In this context, Secretary Guillermo Simunovich, head of the Science and Technology area of the Argentine Embassy before the European Union, and Lic. Agustina Velo, Project Officer at the Liaison Office Argentina-European Union, presented the role of representative offices abroad and their relationship with this Secretariat of Government, particularly as regards cooperation with the European Union. Both highlighted the policy dialogues through which the cooperation with the EU is organized and provided concrete examples of those dialogues. Particularly in the bi-regional dialogue, the role currently played by the H2020-funded EULAC Focus project was highlighted, to strengthen those areas and enable synergies with on-going European initiatives.

Maurizio Bona, representative from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN for its French acronym) used several examples to show the various initiatives in science diplomacy of his institution.

Ms Elke Dall, the Austrian representative from the Social Innovation Centre (ZSI for its German acronym) and Coordinator of the S4D4C Initiative (Using Science for/in diplomacy for addressing global challenges) highlighted in her presentation some of the project results, particularly the survey among diplomats and scientists that generated a “needs report” and training activities. In principle, the preliminary results of the case studies could be shared, particularly those that show asymmetric awareness of research topics driven by foreign policy (such as the S4D4C food safety case study) and the international organization that supports open science and open access policies as a European priority (such as the S4D4C open science diplomacy case study). Ms Dall also presented the analytical progress at bi-regional level of EULAC Focus, an initiative that analyses bi-regional cooperation between Latin American and the Caribbean through 3 (social, cultural and scientific) dimensions to prepare an action plan to renew those relations and a proposal with new activities.

The last speaker of the morning was Dr Roberto Bouzas, who presented the scientific perspective of Argentine cooperation with the European Union and detailed how scientific cooperation works under the funding and framework programmes available to countries outside the Union.

During the afternoon workshop attendees participated in a debate to share different points of view on theoretical and practical dimensions of the science diplomacy concept.

EULAC FOCUS WEB CONFERENCE ON Artificial Intelligence

Continuing our series of web conferences in the framework of the EULAC Focus project, we are pleased to invite you to our 5th ‘Hot Topic’ Web Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

The web conference will be held on Wednesday, 20 November, at 14:00 CET with the following speakers:

• VANINA MARTINEZ, Visiting Professor at Institute for Computer Science (ICC), University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Prof. Dr. EDSON PRESTES, Professor at Institute of Informatics of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
   

Moderation by ALEJANDRA DAVIDZIUK and AGUSTINA VELO, Secretariat of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation of Argentina

The presentations will be held in English.  

Participants can connect through the link: https://webconf.vc.dfn.de/rkatubt36sf8/ 

For more information and a detailed agenda, please refer to the attached document.

EULAC Focus participated actively in the sessions on synergies between EU-funded projects in the framework of the CAMINO A FIESA series of events that took place from 9th to 13th September 2019 in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The event had 200 participants from 120 institutions, 17 countries and 24 EU-funded projects.

The main basis for the discussions during the session was a presentation of the study that, in the framework of EULAC Focus, Juliet Tschank and Wolfgang Haider have been conducting at ZSI on past and ongoing EU funded projects involving EU and LAC institutions. The presentation had an extraordinary success, proof of the interest that the conclusions of the EULAC-FOCUS project is raising.

EULAC-Focus (Giving Focus to the cultural, scientific and social dimensions of EU - LAC relation) es un proyecto multiannual (2016-2019) financiado por H2020. Su objetivo principal es producir un nuevo enfoque y un conjunto de recomendaciones políticas-estratégicas que puedan ayudar a revitalizar las relaciones bi-regionales.

La primera presentación de ambos tendrá lugar en la Conferencia Final que se celebrará en Bruselas el 5 de noviembre (abierto al público y sin costo). Los resultados de EULAC-Focus no aplican solamente a las relaciones entre la UE y América Latina y el Caribe, sino que pueden ser ampliados a las relaciones exteriores de la UE en general.

5 de noviembre 2019
9.15 a 14.30 (incluyendo almuerzo-sandwich de 13.15 a 14.30)
Universitaire Stichting / Fondation Universitaire
Room A
Egmontstraat /rue d’Egmont 11; B-1000 Brussel/Bruxelles

Para revisar el programa de la conferencia ver www.eulac-focus.net/events/brussels-meeting/. Registro de participantes en www.eulac-focus.net/events/brussels-meeting/register/.

EULAC Focus (Giving Focus to the cultural, scientific and social dimensions of EU - LAC relation) is a Horizon 2020 multiannual project (2016-2019) inherently policy-oriented. Its main purpose is to produce a new approach and a set of policy recommendations that can help to reinvigorate bi-regional relations.

The first presentation of both will take place in the Final Conference to be held in Brussels on the 5th of November (open to the public and free of any charge). EULAC Focus' outcomes do not apply only to EU - LAC relations; they can be extended to EU external relations in general.

5th NOVEMBER 2019
9.15 to 14.30h (including a standing lunch 13.15 - 14.30h)
Universitaire Stichting / Fondation Universitaire
Room A
Egmontstraat /rue d’Egmont 11; B-1000 Brussel/Bruxelles

To view the programme of the conference, visit eulac-focus.net/events/brussels-meeting/, to register to attend the conference please go to eulac-focus.net/events/brussels-meeting/register/. 

Se encuentra disponible la edición 2019 de El Estado de la Ciencia - Principales Indicadores de Ciencia y Tecnología - Iberoamericanos / Interamericanos. Es el resultado del esfuerzo conjunto de los países participantes de la RICYT, que aportan la información estadística incluida en este volumen, y de una activa comunidad de expertos en indicadores, acompañados por distintos organismos internacionales que dan respaldo a la red. Este año suma el apoyo de la Oficina Regional de Ciencias para América Latina y el Caribe de la UNESCO, con sede en Montevideo.
 
Es esta oportunidad, además del análisis gráfico de los principales indicadores, bajo el título "El Estado de la Ciencia en Imágenes", esta edición contiene una serie de estudios que analizan diferentes temáticas relacionadas con la agenda actual de discusión en torno a la ciencia, la tecnología y la innovación, y que pueden ser abordados desde una perspectiva cuantitativa.
 
El primero de ellos, desarrollado por Mario Albornoz, Rodolfo Barrere, Natalia Bas y Juan Sokil, analiza los resultados de una interesantes y original encuesta a los autores de artículos científicos latinoamericanos sobre sus actividades de vinculación con entorno.  Este trabajo consigue obtener información a nivel de los individuos y ofrece una interesante radiografía de las distintas modalidades de vinculación con el entorno no académico.
 
En segundo lugar, bajo el título de “Vías de cambio en la evaluación de la producción científica: hacia un portafolio equilibrado”, Daniel Samoilovich y Paola Andrea Ramírez se centran en una de las aristas del extenso fenómeno englobado bajo el término “ciencia abierta”: la evaluación. Los autores analizan por qué un cambio en los mecanismos de evaluación es necesario y deseable, indagando en las razones que lo dificultan.
 
Por último, en el artículo “Cambio climático y opinión pública en América Latina”, Carmelo Polino realiza un detallado análisis de un tema que es hoy crítico y centro de controversias a nivel regional y mundial. Luego de un proceso de normalización de datos, y aprovechando la información comparable disponible en las encuestas de percepción pública iberoamericanas.
 
Como de costumbre, el libro se completa con la serie de indicadores comparativos de inversión, recursos humanos, graduados, publicaciones y patentes de la RICYT, de acuerdo a la información brindada por los Organismos Nacionales de Ciencia y Tecnología que participan de la red.

Créditos
Organismos y personas de enlace
Prólogo
1.1 El Estado de la Ciencia en imágenes
2.1 Los investigadores latinoamericanos y el vínculo con su entorno
2.2 Vías de cambio en la evaluación de la producción científica: hacia un portafolio equilibrado
2.3 Cambio Climático y Opinión publica en América Latina
3. Indicadores comparativos
 
 
Descargar libro completo

Los ponentes para este evento serán:

• JAVIER GÓMEZ PRIETO, Funcionario científico del Joint Research Centre
• SILKE HAARICH, Responsable del proyecto INNOVACT
• SOLEDAD VALIENTE MOYANO, Coordinadora en la Dirección de Redes y Colaboración, CORFO
• HORACIO BABINI, Director de la Oficina Exterior de Comercio e Inversiones de Cataluña en Buenos Aires, ACCIÓ
• RICARD ESPARZA MASSANA, Profesor asociado de la Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

MODERADORA: JENNY MORÍN NENOFF, DLR

FECHA Y HORA: 5 DE SEPTIEMBRE 2019, 4 PM CEST (duración max. 2h)

OBJETIVO: Intercambio de buenas y malas prácticas, consideraciones comunes y desafíos.

PUNTO DE PARTIDA

Especialización Inteligente es una metodología innovadora que promueve la identificación de ventajas competitivas regionales y ayuda a reorientar esfuerzos y recursos para establecer cadenas de valor y avanzar en la innovación.

El concepto fue desarrollado en la Unión Europea (UE) pero, debido a su enfoque local/ regional, es altamente adaptable. Por lo tanto, tiene el potencial de implementarse en todo el mundo.

Varias regiones de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) ya están implementando la Especialización Inteligente de acuerdo con sus propias características territoriales y contextos socioeconómicos, con el fin de identificar y desarrollar sus ventajas competitivas. La UE apoya esta internacionalización y actualmente coopera con Brasil, México, Perú, Chile, Argentina y Colombia.

La Especialización Inteligente ha demostrado ser un segmento fructífero de la cooperación UE-ALC. Estos diálogos interregionales incluyen el intercambio de experiencias entre las autoridades regionales en la elaboración, implementación y gestión de políticas regionales.

Además, la Especialización Inteligente está bien diseñada para abordar los desafíos mundiales y contribuir a alcanzar los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) de las Naciones Unidas, principalmente a través de las hojas de ruta de ciencia, tecnología e innovación.

Bajo este contexto, el proyecto EULAC Focus organiza su cuarta conferencia web con el objetivo de vincular las estrategias de innovación y la cooperación bi-regional de CTI.

Para conectar: https://webconf.vc.dfn.de/rnfc0pcvrb4g/