Author: Andre Barbosa

Between November 2nd to 5th, 2021, in Foz do Iguaçu – Brazil, the second edition of “InterForensics Conferences,” took place, organized by the Brazilian Academy of Forensic Sciences (ABCF) with the support of the National Association of Federal Criminal Experts (APCF). These are relevant research and academic entities responsible for developing new technologies and tools in this area.

In the event, EU-LAC Resinfra was represented by one of its four pilots, the E-RIHS (European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science) through the intervention of its scientific coordinator Luca Pezzatti. E-RIHS is an organization that enables the research community to use specific facilities, resources, and services that are geographically scattered, given access to facilities, resources, and services in the field of Heritage Science across Europe. Thus, catalyzing new cross-disciplinary research by mobilizing expertise and researchers in the humanities and natural sciences, integrating world-class facilities across Europe to connect the global community of heritage science and, building state-of-the-art tools and services for research communities and to the heritage industry.

The conference was divided into thematic areas and Luca Pezzatti participated in the “Patrimonio Historica e Cultura.” discussion. He presented his work entitled “Towards a global infrastructure for research in cultural heritage.” showing his vast knowledge in optics applied to Cultural Heritage’s safeguards; biomedical optics; optical metrology; 3D-measuring optical techniques; optical systems design; interferometry; phase-analysis techniques; and scientific software design. These are topics developed  in his work.

During the past few months, EU-LAC ResInfra has achieved its planned outcomes and objectives for this period. Moreover, EU-LAC ResInfra has participated in many international scientific events and conferences, reaching a higher dissemination of the project’s results.

All the details are described in our last Newsletter that can be read here.

On October 19th, the European Union – Latin America and the Caribbean Foundation (EU-LAC Foundation) organized a workshop that brought together relevant actors from both regions in the framework of the EU-CELAC Joint Initiative on Research and Innovation (JIRI). EU-LAC RESINFRA was one of the initiatives presented in this workshop entitled “Exchange on progress made and opportunities for bi-regional cooperation in research and innovation – one year after agreement on the JIRI EU – LAC Strategic Road Map 2021-2023”. It was organized in close collaboration with the Pro-Tempore Presidency of CELAC, Mexico, the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, and the Coordinator of the National Contact Points of LAC. The event was opened by Adrián Bonilla, Executive Director of the EU-LAC Foundation, who mentioned the importance of science as an essential area to strength the link between Europe and LAC. Adrián Bonilla stressed also that the JIRI is one of the most significant initiatives between the European Union and Latin America.

The concrete objective of this event was to follow up on the actions around the four pillars agreed at the Eighth Senior Officials Meeting on Science and Technology of the JIRI in October 2020: mobility of researchers, cooperation in research infrastructures, global challenges – particularly health, environmental aspects of sustainable development/green transition and digital transformation – and innovation. EU-LAC RESINFRA was presented by Inmaculada Figueroa, from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and coordinator of the project, who exposed its main achievements and contributions for the development of the cooperation in research infrastructure’s pillar. Projects like EU LAC RESINFRA contribute to leverage and coordinate the existing scientific and academic networks, and to promote events capable of attracting people from both regions on relevant topics for the construction and concretization of a joint EU-LAC agenda.

The event was attended also by Claudia Romano, Coordinator of the National Contact Points Network for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation, Adrián Bonilla, together with Martín Penny (Head of Unit, International Cooperation of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission), Javier Dávila Torres (General Director of Cooperation Policy, Mexican Agency of International Development Cooperation) and Rogelio Granguillhome (Ambassador of Mexico to the Kingdom of Belgium and Luxembourg and Permanent Mission to the European Union), among others.

During the workshop, it was made clear that the pillar with the most significant progress was Research Infrastructures, which plays a fundamental role in advancing and coordinating with scientific and academic networks. EU-LAC RESINFRA’s work is of great importance for this pillar, considering that this project supports precisely this area in order to enhancing the cooperation and integration between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean.

This was a relevant event to understand the current state and implementation of the roadmap previously proposed for JIRI and to visualize future challenges and opportunities that may arise. One important conclusion was the importance of having more events like this one for the promotion of coordination and inter-regional joint work in a wide range of scientific areas, always emphasizing cooperation.

On October 14^th 2021, EU-LAC RESINFRA project together with RED-CLARA held a successful event entitled “Take advantage of EllaLink connectivity to carry out your research”. Taking the EllaLink as starting point, the workshop exposed and discussed the capabilities of the existing advanced networks between EU and LAC for the development of research activities.

EllaLink – the transatlantic high-connectivity cable linking Europe and LAC that was implemented by RedCLARA and the pan-European advanced network GÉANT – is now completed. According to Luis E. Cardenas, Executive Director of RedCLARA, who opened the workshop, EllaLink represents an important step for the data exchange between Europe and Latin America, opening a new stage of the scientific collaboration among these two regions.

Inmaculada Figueroa, coordinator of the project EU-LAC RESINFRA, presented an overview on the existing capacities of the Research Infrastructures (RIs) collaboration links between Europe and LAC. EU-LAC RESINFRA supports the RIs bi-regional cooperation and their internationalization envisaging a range of different activities. Inmaculada Figueroa stressed the importance of each of these activities for the construction of the EU-LAC RIs collaboration, and the opportunities the project is opening for the researching activities of both regions. 

RedIRIS, the Spanish academic and research network that provides advanced communication services to the scientific community and universities, was presented by Alberto Pérez, the director of the entity. During the presentation, the advanced services provided by this infrastructure were exposed, stressing the importance of infrastructures like RedIRIS to connect academic and research networks from different parts of the world and to develop research projects at the global scale.

The initiatives LaConga and LAGO were presented by Luis Núñez and Hernán Asorey as examples of projects that use the above-mentioned infrastructures and services to develop their activities. Both presentations highlighted how the existing advanced networks between EU and LAC are producing direct impacts on the scientific progress of our societies.  

All the speakers participated in the closing roundtable together with Lautaro Matas (LA Referencia), Philippe Navaux (SCALAC) and Michael Stanton (RNP). The session was moderated by Raphael Mayo Garcia from CIEMAT and coordinator of RICAP one of the 4 pilots of EU-LAC ResInfra project. Questions such as how to guarantee the maintenance of these projects’ outcomes and impacts in time as well as the best strategies to exploit the existing knowledge and the available resources were among the topics discussed at the end of the workshop.

The event took place online through the Zoom platform and was attended by researchers from LAC (78% attendees) and Europe. It was broadcast on YouTube, and made available afterwards on the same platform. The workshop recording can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynsUrv8Im70&t=625s.

From September 14^th to October 5^th the second edition of the UNGA76 Science Summit took place around the 76th United Nations General Assembly (SSUNGA76). The objective of this summit was to raise awareness of the role and contribution of science to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In this sense, the event was a platform to share initiatives that provide models for global science mechanisms and activities in support of the SDGs, particularly in the area of science infrastructure and capacity building.

This topic is precisely one of the main fields of interest of the EU-LAC RESINFRA project, as one of its main goals is to enhance the bi-regional collaboration regarding Research Infrastructures between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Among other activities, the project aims to show the feasibility of the EU-LAC RI collaboration through existing examples thanks to the development of four pilots in different scientific domains that are linked to some existing Research Infrastructures: INSTRUCT-ERIC, LIFEWATCH-ERIC, E-RIHS and RICAP which will help to prove the feasibility of the collaboration and to boost it. Both the project and its pilot dedicated to the field of ecosystems and biodiversity – LifEuLAC – were presented at the event.

In the session “Life Below Water and Life on Land”, that took place on the 1st of October, Inmaculada Figueroa – EU-LAC RESINFRA’s coordinator – participated in the round table on the EU International cooperation perspective. In the first part of the presentation Inmaculada Figueroa explained the importance and scope of the project, and shared with the attendees its objectives, achievements and action plan. The second part of the presentation was focused on the work developed on   LifEuLAC pilot linked to LIFEWATCH-ERIC. The main objective of this pilot is to measure the impact of Global Climate Change issues on Earth Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research. The coordinator of EU-LAC RESINFRA exposed also the concrete actions that are being developed in the LifEuLAC pilot to achieve this objective in the. Among them is the establishment of LifEuLAC pilot co-located offices, beginning with the definition of a shared-common virtual research environment scheme, and paving the way to the establishment of concrete physical co-located premises at Andalucia (Spain) Costa Rica and Uruguay.

The session counted also on the participation of speakers from Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (Germany) IMIBIO (Argentina), the National Institute for Environmental Conservation INCOMA, Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) and Amigos de Doñana (Spain)

The session recording can be accessed here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rtp82ThXpvo

The EU-LAC ResInfra project is organising a workshop on the capabilities of existing advanced networks between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This online event, which is organised together with the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (RedCLARA), will take place on October 14, 2021. Following the completion of EllaLink —the transatlantic high-connectivity cable linking Europe and LAC that was implemented by RedCLARA and the pan-European advanced network GÉANT— this event will discuss the capabilities of the existing advanced networks between these regions. In order to present to the scientific community the opportunities generated by these links, the existing advanced services will be discussed and examples of advanced network services and initiatives between Europe and LAC will be shown.

The executive director of RedCLARA, Luis E. Cadenas, will open the event to present the EllaLink project and its potentials. The EU-LAC ResInfra project will be presented by Inmaculada Figueroa (Ministry of Science and Innovation – Spain), while Alberto Pérez (RedIRIS) will speak about the advanced services provided by academic networks. Other initiatives such as LaConga and LAGO will also be presented. All the speakers will participate in a roundtable at the end of the event.

The detailed agenda is available here.

Please register here.

The workshop will take place in Spanish using the Zoom Platform.

In a joint action with EU-LAC ResInfra and iNEXT-Discovery, Instruct-ERIC launched a second international call, open to researchers from institutions holding a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with this institution.

This initiative contributes to the main goal of EU-LAC ResInfra project of enhancing the bi-regional collaboration regarding Research Infrastructures by promoting the exchange of experiences, staff and access provision between regions. In concrete, this funding is available to support up to 8 projects by providing research visits or remote access to any Instruct-ERIC center. Project proposals should select a single service from the Instruct-ERIC catalogue.

In this second call, the eligible institution are:

Latin America

• Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario (IBR, Argentina) 

 • Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata (INIBIOLP, Argentina)

 • Instituto de Química y Fisicoquímica Biológicas (IQUIFIB, Argentina)

 • University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)

 • University of San Martín (UNSAM, Argentina)

 • Leloir Institute Foundation (Argentina) 

 • The Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP, Brazil)

 • Centro de Biología Estructural (CBE, Venezuela)

 • Institut Pasteur Montevideo (Uruguay)

 • Universidad de la República (UdelaR, Uruguay)

Africa

• University of Cape Town (UCT, South Africa)

To know more about this call, please click here.

It will be open until the October 31, 2021, at 5 pm CEST. Proposal Guidelines are available here. 

The TICAL2021 and the 5th Latin American e-Science Meeting was held between August 30^th and September 4^th to discuss the topic “Rethinking the University driven by digital technologies”. The event brough together the ICT leaders of Latin American universities and researchers who use technology intensively for their daily work. TICAL2021 aimed to join examples of implementation of solutions and strategies in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that support or contribute to the exercise of rethinking technological applications in Higher Education Institutions. EU-LAC RESINFRA was one of the projects selected to join the discussion on these topics.

On August 30^th, Rafael Mayo-Garcia (CIEMAT – Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas) shared the EU-LAC RESINFRA project in the parallel session on “eScience: Technological solutions and tools to enhance research”. The session had also the participation of the following projects: IkiamLab Link, LaRedCCA and Erasmus + LACoNGA Physics. In his speech, Rafael Mayo-Garcia explained the structure of the project and stressed the importance of the bioregional coordination, considering that every work package integrates, at least, an entity from Latin American-Caribbean and another one from Europe, ensuring the knowledge mixture and the diversity. The four pilots that are being developed in the project were also presented, specifically:

1. Instruct Eric: Structural Biology
2. Lifewatch: Ecosystems and Biodiversity
3. E-RIHS: cultural heritage
4. RICAP: Transdisciplinary application of computation. 

The presentation concluded with an exposition of the grand scope of the project, its regional magnitude, that consider 18 countries in two regions, including many entities, both public and private, as well as from the educational field, an essential element for the development of new technologies and knowledge infrastructures.

The session recording can be accessed here: TICAL2021 y 5° Enc. LA de e-Ciencia. Paralela: Soluciones y herramientas tecnológicas para… – YouTube

In the context of the EU-LAC ResInfra project, Instruct-ERIC opened a staff exchange call to allow researchers from Latin American institutions to visit European facilities. The call invited researchers from any Latin American institution which has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Instruct-ERIC to submit an application to utilise the equipment and machineries available at Instruct’s European centres.

Three researchers were selected and they will be visiting Instruct-ERIC facilities, accessing the equipment and sharing best practices and guidance with the host institutions to further advance research and understanding not only of the structural biology techniques but also of the procedures to allow open access to the infrastructure. 

Robeto Kopke Salinas of University of Sao Paulo (USP-Brazil) will be visiting the Bijvoet Centre at Instruct-NL Utrecht University (UU), utilising the highly sensitive Bruker NMR Spectrometers for analysis of the Type IV Secretion System (T4SS) of the phytopathogen Xanthomonas citri.

Leonardo Alonso of University of Buenos Aires (UBA – Chile) is to visit EMBL-Hamburg, to access the mass spectrometry facilities at the Instruct Centre. The team have been studying deamidation of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein, and are seeking to determine which deamidations occur and what their functional significance is.

Alejandro Buschiazzo of Institut Pasteur Montevideo (IPMontevideo- Uruguay) will visit The Instruct Image Processing Centre (I2PC) In Madrid, Spain, with the specific aim of training in Cryo-EM techniques. Buschiazzo’s lab at IPMontevideo currently conducts macromolecular X-ray crystallography, but is keen to incorporate Cryo-EM as a key technique available at the facility. 

The aim of all three staff exchanges is to share knowledge that would be crucial to the plans to set up regional access centres for structural biology in Latin America.

To know more about the specific aims of these exchanges, please click here.

The virtual three-day symposium that brought together delegates from Latin American and European research infrastructures (RIs), science policy organisations and research institutions to discuss opportunities and challenges for RI cooperation between Latin America and Europe took place between June 15-17.

The objective of the event was to raise awareness of individual RIs, to identify measures to mitigate current challenges of bi-regional cooperation between RIs, to initiate new and strengthening existing collaborations, and to initiate networks in a sustainable way so that all stakeholders benefit.

Moreover, the RI-VIS project has published the White Paper entitled “Recommendations towards cooperation between Latin American and European research infrastructures”. This White Paper collates the insights of experts from Latin American RIs, European RIs, and policymakers, highlighting examples of Latin American-European RI collaboration, best practices for successful collaboration, perceived challenges and bottlenecks, and from these presents a series of actionable recommendations. The White Paper is available here.

Inmaculada Figueroa (coordinator of EU-LAC Resinfra) speech can be watched here: