Category: News

On 18 May, the European Commission published a Communication on Europe’s strategy for international cooperation and its global approach to Research and Innovation. This Communication addresses the EU’s positions, priorities, challenges and objectives as a catalyst for internationalisation in research and innovation in a changing world marked by the experience of the pandemic.

Thus, the document presents a new European strategy that seeks to enhance multilateralism and reciprocal openness in research and innovation cooperation, enabling global responses to global challenges. To this end, the EC is committed to the open strategic autonomy of the European innovation ecosystem, combining it with its bilateral cooperation with non-EU countries in certain areas.

This strategy sets out the positions on the role that the EU should take on various issues relating to global research and innovation, and the actions that the EC will take accordingly. Among these, the strategy includes positions on EU commitment to international openness and fundamental values in research and innovation, the search for a balance between open science and the autonomy and values of the European Innovation System, or the EU’s role in promoting international collaboration in processes such as green and digital transitions, among others.

The strategy also provides room for EU cooperation approaches with priority countries and regions, including Latin America. Thus, the EU reaffirms in the Communication its compromise and support for the implementation of the EU-CELAC Strategic Roadmap on Science, Technology and Innovation, based on the four pillars of cooperation with the region: (i) global challenges, (ii) mobility of researchers, (iii) research infrastructures and (iv) innovation. Reaffirmation of this strategy, which guides the action of JIRI SOM, WG on RI and the ResInfra Project itself, reinforces the positive outlook for the role of EU-LAC bi-regional cooperation in R&I in the recovery of the coming years.

Access the document here.

European Research and Innovation Days are just around the corner! Registration for the European Commission’s annual event, which will take place online on 23 and 24 June 2021, is now open.

This edition will cover topics such as the start of Horizon Europe – the EU’s most ambitious research and innovation program – the role of research and innovation in the recovery of the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps towards ecological and digital transitions.

These important topics will be discussed during the two days of the event in plenary sessions and panel discussions, which will be broadcast live through five simultaneous channels. Check the program now and choose your sessions! Don’t forget to register here.

The third edition of the Open Forum of Sciences of Latin America and the Caribbean (CILAC) has kicked off today and will last until April 28. With more than 200 panelists, more than 100 activities and representation from more than 25 countries, CILAC promises to be once again an ideal space to discuss and define the future of science, technology and innovation (ICT) initiatives and policies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Forum, which is held every two years itinerantly in different cities of the region – this time in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires – promotes the meeting and cooperation between scientists, entrepreneurs, policy makers, science outreach centers, scientific journalists, etc., allowing the exchange of experiences and the definition of strategies in ICT at regional level.

CILAC 2021 has as its main axis the role of science as a vector of inclusion. Around this axis four central themes have been defined that will explore the possibilities of science to help create more inclusive societies in the region: artifical intelligence; digital economy; inclusive science and climate change.

CILAC 2021 will develop in a vitural way, accompanying face-to-face activities in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. To view the program and register, visit the CILAC Forum website.

The European Commission has launched its first emergency funding under Horizon Europe. With a budget of 123 million euros, the calls included in this fund seek to complement the actions carried out so far in the fight against COVID-19, such as research and development of vaccines and treatments, providing the EC with knowledge and tools to prevent and respond to the impact of COVID.

The different calls, opened for the submition of proposals on April 15 and with a deadline of May 6, 2021, range from the development of fair and open data sharing instruments, vaccines & therapeutical clinical trials to research infrastructure services for rapid research responses to COVID-19.

Research infrastructures play an important role in this emergency fund through the call HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EMERGENCY-02: Research infrastructure services for rapid research responses to COVID-19 and other infectious disease epidemics. This call involves research infrastructures in the prevention and fight against COVID and expects to obtain proposals that enhance EU capacity to identify, characterise and mitigate the effects of COVID-19 virus variants of concern and future emerging pathogens, reinforce RI capacity to provide at scale and across the EU services to support excellent research, increase society’s long-term and consist problem-solving capacity and evidence-based policy making and provide new discoveries and knowledge breakthroughs enabled by access provision to the best and in some cases unique state-of-the-art RIs.

For more information on this call and submition of proposals, visit the webpage of EC funding & tender oportunities.

Latin America – Europe Symposium on Research Infrastructures, organised by ResInfra and RI-VIS – Horizon 2020 funded project designed to increase the visibility of European research infrastructures (RIs) -, will take place between Tuesday, June 15th and Thursday, June 17th 2021. With speakers from across EU-LAC, the Latin America – Europe Symposium on Research Infrastructures will deliver expert insight on how collaboration between these regions can benefit individual facilities and the overall research infrastructure community.

This virtual symposium will bring together delegates from Latin American and European research infrastructures (RIs), science policy organisations, researchers and research institutions from both regions with the aim of addressing the challenges and opportunities of biregional cooperation in the field of RI, and how the implementation of an effective roadmap can benefit both regions.

This dialogue is expected to enable effective identification of the challenges of cooperation and an advance the strengthening of bilateral relations. International cooperation in research, science and technology is a key element in addressing the global problems of the present and the future with greater efficiency and equity, and cooperation in RI plays a central role in this process. The Latin America – Europe Symposium on Research Infrastructures will be a great opportunity to move forward on this path.

From ResInfra and RI-VIS we encourage you to participate in this important event, which will be free through identification. You can register here and download the schedule below here:

The first newsletter of the project, which collects its latest news and progress, has already been sent! This newsletter reviews the first steps of the project, captures the role of research infrastructures against COVID-19 and reviews some of the activities carried out during 2020. It also includes a final section with the latest news and upcoming activities in the field of cooperation in RI.

It is available in Spanish and English and you can download it right here. Don’t miss it!

If you want to receive the next newsletters in your email, do not forget to subscribe by scrolling down on this website!

The 7^th meeting of EU-CELAC Working Group on Research Infrastructures (WG RI) took place online on 4^th March 2021. The meeting, in which 13 countries from LAC and 11 from the EU were represented, was co-chaired by Adam Tyson, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission, and Fernando Amestoy, Director of the Institute Polo Tecnológico de Pando, Uruguay.

The main outcomes of the meeting were discussions on the formulation of recommendations for future bi-regional cooperation within the framework of the EU-CELAC RI WG in line with its objectives, the presentation of the achievements of the 4 RI pilots within H2020 ResInfra Project, the presentation and discussion of the work plan for the WG beyond March 2021 and the presentation of the landscape of RIs in LAC and EU based on the Cooperation Workshops and Online Seminars organized by the WG.

In relation to the future of bi-regional cooperation, the delegates discussed the functioning and results of the WG in order to formulate recommendations. Some of the main conclusions of this exercise include the confirmation of the importance of the WG as a way to face the asymmetry between the regions regarding RIs, as well as some specific recommendations, such as the necessity of enhancing the relation with relevant Ministries of the Member Countries and the support to RI pilots of ResInfra project as a mean for finding new partners for international cooperation.

Also, among the future activities defined in the work plan beyond March 2021 to continue the political dialogue regarding RI, was the decision of give sustainability to the WG during 2021 through the ResInfra Project. This work plan also included the recommendation of coordination of activities with International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI), and support for the next JIRI SOM.

Last but not least, the Service Facility presented to the WG a short analysis of the landscape of RIs in LAC and EU: facts and figures received from the participants of the Cooperation Workshops coming from more than 120 RIs from EU and LAC registered. This information allowed WG to learn and draw conclusions about the differences and similarities of RIs in EU and LAC, and ways to improve cooperation between them. Also, participants of the webinars, case of Instruct ERIC stated that RIs from both regions have been matching a lot with good results, and was pointed out the need to collaborate in the area of the RI management.

As a conclusion, the assistants to the 7th CELAC RI WG meeting noted the importance of bi-regional cooperation platforms in RIs between EU and LAC, and the usefulness of activities such as workshops to improve coordination and contacts between them. In the closure the WG expressed its congratulations to the Service Facility for the extraordinary work done supporting the WG activities and thanked EU-LAC ResInfra project its compromise to support of the WG in this new Period until a new stable supporting structure is available.

Latin America BioImaging community, led by Agencia Mexicana de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarrollo (AMEXCID) and Agencia Urguaya de Cooperación Internacional (AUCI), will hold a major international online event on April 8 on ‘National perspectives and prospects for BioImaging from across the region’.

This symposium will involve the majority of BioImaging actors from the region, who will share their current and future perspectives for the development of regional collaboration in this field. It is hoped that this sharing can drive the building of the Latin American BioImaging Network, which is currently under construction.

The symposium will be mostly in Spanish, although the organizers will take into account the presence of the Brazilian community and English will be used when necessary.

The sharing of perspectives and ideas of actors across the region that will take place at this event is a central element for the fruitful construction of a network of transnational collaboration in this field.

 For more information and to register for the event, please visit the website of Latin America BioImaging community here.

RICAP, Red Iberoamericana de Computación de Altas Prestaciones – HPC Iberian American Network is one of the four pilots of ResInfra project. RICAP provides strategic infrastructure in the field of high performance computing from an advanced architecture that includes both High Performance Computing (HPC) and High Throughput Computing (HTC). Co-funded by the Ibero-American Development Science and Technology Program (Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo – CYTED ), RICAP brings together several computer centres, various use case providers in different scientific and technological fields, one of the world’s largest supercomputing companies and an experimental Latin American consortium in the field of physics.

Since 2017, RICAP has provided free access to HPC resources to nearly 50 groups: over 10 million hours of CPU and more than 47 million GPU hours. RICAP has also participated in around 60 training material publications, 13 HPC schools, 18 theses (5 PhD, 5 MSc and 8 BSc), and has received more than 60 recognitions in published articles. RICAP already has 15 partners and all of them have provided active participation and sought new financing opportunities in the future; the consortium has also launched activities to ensure sustainability.

As part of ResInfra, RICAP has done specific work identifying potential EU and LAC partners and HPC best practices for LAC. In two deliverables available on the website, RICAP centres have identified and reported 26 actors for the HPC sustainability based in LAC and Europe and have reported best practices based on their context and SWOT analyses.

In 2021, RICAP is working on a third report that will define the roadmap for the coming years, as well as reports on sustainability success stories. As the COVID-19 situation improves, they also expect short-term scientific visits to take place. Visit their website to learn more about RICAP‘s activity and contributions!

Members of the Structural Biology team at the University of Sao Paulo benefitted from two trips to European research facilities, to the Diamond Synchrotron, Oxford, UK and to study NMR measurements at the University of Florence.

Richard Garrett, Humberto Pereira and Italo Cavini visited the European facilities as part of a call from Instruct-ERIC, designed to enhance collaboration between Latin American research groups and European Research Infrastructures.

The quality of the data collected meant that the trips contributed significantly to the understanding of septin polymerisation, with more analysis to be carried out for further investigation.

Richard Garratt commented, “Very few high-resolution spectrometers dedicated to biomolecular NMR are currently available in Brazil. As a result, a one-week measurement period can take several months to schedule due to the high demand. The INSTRUCT-ERIC call represented an excellent alternative in allowing us to visit CERM, the Instruct centre in Florence, significantly helping our research to move forward.”

“The proposal was submitted by the end of May 2019. Right after approval, the visit was very efficiently scheduled for November 2019. The communication with the hub and the specialists was agile and efficient and we were very impressed by the excellent technical support provided by the Centre.”

Instruct-ERIC, in the context of the EU-LAC ResInfra project, continues to encourage researchers from Latin America to explore the offering of structural biology facilities available through Instruct-ERIC.

Visit the Instruct-ERIC website for more information on all of our services, and to submit a proposal for your next project.