During the past year 2021, 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 higher dissemination of the project’s results.
All the details are described in our last Newsletter that can be read HERE
The EU-LAC Interest Group towards the Common Research Area launches a new Joint Call to enhance the bi-regional cooperation in Science, Technology, and Innovation. The call did open last Monday, 24 January 2021, and will close the Thursday, 28 April 2022.
The call to find initiatives that contemplate sustainable and multilateral research cooperation between researchers from Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean countries. Multiregional consortia are called to submit the proposals to six topics of Global Challenges, Health, Biodiversity, and Energy. The call topics have been defined in collaboration with the EU-funded projects EU-LAC ResInfra, EULAC PerMed, and SINCERE..
The Proposals must be submitted online following the Guide for Applicants. The application consists of two parts, the Project Description Template form and the online submission form accessible at https://ptoutline.eu/app/eu-lac-2022.
The projects will be funded for up to 36 months. For more information, please follow the link: https://www.eucelac-platform.eu/joint-call/4th-eu-lac-joint-call-sti-2022.
The 3rd workshop is on how the RI communities and researchers can use and benefit from EOSC, getting added value. Besides the general benefits of EOSC towards open science and “FAIRification” of data and services, it is considered that the daily use of EOSC Exchange and concrete tools by the RI users for intra and interdisciplinary research will also greatly benefit EOSC, in becoming useful and effective, contributing towards its sustainability.
Some points that will be highlighted during this workshop are:
The agent of this event will to have seven sessions divided in two days every one which will have the presence of distinguished presenters. The title and the presenter of every instance are:
Day 1 – Tuesday, 25 January 2022
Day 2 – Wednesday, 26 January 2022
For more details about the agenda follow the link: https://www.esfri.eu/esfri-events/3rd-esfri-ris-eosc-workshop?qt-event=1#qt-event
This event will be entirely online, and to participate, please subscribe at the link here: https://www.esfri.eu/esfri-events/3rd-esfri-ris-eosc-workshop?qt-event=2#qt-event
The 2ª International Call from Instruct-ERIC has been awarded, providing access for researchers in institutions that hold a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Instruct to access European facilities to help advance their ongoing research.
Instruct’s work within the EU-LAC ResInfra project in collaboration with iNEXT-Discovery has organized eight visits from Latin American institutions to Instruct European facilities.
The 2nd International Call further emphasizes how the partnership between Instruct-ERIC and EU-LAC ResInfra provides benefits for researchers in both Latin America and Europe. These visits add to the EU-LAC ResInfra mobility program in structural biology already started with the three staff exchanges awarded last year, which are now underway.
The visits will take place throughout 2022. As a result, all users will receive the necessary training and expertise in using the equipment while also sharing their own experience with the host institution.
European Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) is a vital pillar of the European Research Area (ERA) as it is a strategic instrument to develop the scientific integration of Europe and to strengthen its international outreach. On December 07th, ESFRI presented the roadmap 2021 Update on Large Scale Research Infrastructures in an online event. This Roadmap identifies the European investment priorities and provides the directions for their further development, and looks into the future challenges of the Research Infrastructure policy. Furthermore, this document identifies the main features of the RIs landscape in Europe to implement an integrated and interconnected Research infrastructure eco-system as an important element of the ERA Policy Agenda. This document can be consulted here.
The coordinator of EU – LAC ResInfra, Inmaculada Figueroa, moderated the panel on “Research infrastructure is a driver in the International cooperation”. Inmaculada remarked on the importance of this topic, which is an essential tool to face the current challenges such as climate change, large-scale natural events, and the last pandemic experienced recently.
This panel counted on the participation of three experts in different areas related to research infrastructures and international cooperation. The first speaker was Philip Diamond, SKAO Observatory Director. He started presenting the SKAO project, a global network which supports the construction of high-level radio astronomical observatories. Nicolas Dromel from MESFRI, talked about research infrastructures, raised the global challenge associated with the complexity these have. Werner Kutch, General Director of ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System), presented this project and how it is in charge of in-situ greenhouse gas and carbon cycle measurements.
The conclusions from the panel remarked the vital importance of international support for the generation of research infrastructures where ESFRI has been able to set an agenda. Furthermore, it was stressed the relevance of ESFRI Roadmap 2021 as a demonstration of the high merit of and potential for European collaboration in developing visions and sustainable perspectives for an interoperable Research Infrastructure ecosystem as a key asset of Europe.
In other sessions topics such as RIs in the ERA Policy Agenda were discussed and New ESFRI projects were presented.
The event recording can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ESFRI-EU
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 14th 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 14th to October 5th 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
