Categoría: Noticias

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 y LAGO will also be presented. All the speakers will participate in a roundtable at the end of the event.

The detailed agenda is available aquí.

Please register here.

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

In a joint action with UE-ALC ResInfra y 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 UE-ALC 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 aquí.

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.

La grabación de la sesión puede consultarse aquí: 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 aquí.

The ResInfra project Work Package 2 team, consisting of CNPq (WP leader), VTT (co-leader), FCT, MICITT y MINCIENCIAS, has updated the mapping of the LAC RI ecosystem which will be the basis for the bi-regional RI collaboration.

This mapping exercise has been based on previous exercises, drawing on the knowledge generated in previous projects and adding new infrastructures to those already identified. In addition, as an added value, this exercise includes information identifying the existing relevant collaborations between RIs in intra-LAC, EU-LAC, and when available, LAC-non EU countries, as well as good practices identified.

The mapping exercise began with the definition of a list of eligibility criteria to be applied for the inclusion of RIs in the LAC mapping and the definition of the scientific areas in which the RIs will be grouped. This has allowed establish a methodology for deepening the already existing mapping where needed and providing information.

As a result of an intense work that has included desk research, gap analysis on RI mappings and the design and launch of a Regional Survey of LAC RI National Mappings applied in the framework of EU-LAC WG on RI, WP2 has deepened the available mappings of LAC infrastructures, including 167 mapped RIs in total, with 92 updated RIs. The updating Of LAC RIs, however, is a continuous work that will continue to be carried out in the future.

The process of updating LAC RIs together with the  identification of state of the art on current collaborations and best practices in EU-LAC RI cooperation have served as a basis for the realization of a SWOT analysis. The deliverables 2.1 “Report on the criteria, scientific areas and methodology to develop the LAC RI landscape”, D 2.2  “Updated report on LAC RIs” and D 2.3 “LAC landscape analysis including SWOT and state of the art on current collaborations and best practices in EU-LAC RI cooperation” are available for download in the ResInfra web repository.

The work developed in this work group will be, together with the experience of the project pilots, the basis for the work to be carried out in other work packages of the project. This  is the case of the work done by ANID (leader), CNR (co-leader), UEFISCDI, FCT, VTT, CNPq, MICITT, MINCIENCIAS, AEI, DLR within WP3, whose objective is to collect data and to create a portfolio of EU and LAC RI roadmapping strategies, funding models and policy instruments, in order to select promising practices and lessons learnt; this is also the case of WP5, leaded by MEC, whose objective is give support to the EU-CELAC SOM Working Group on RI and make links with RI related bodies.

Horizonte Europa is the EU’s funding program for Research & Innovation for the period 2021-202, with a budget of €95.5 billion. The first calls for proposals for collaborative research action were launched in June 2021.

In this context, EURAXESS, supported by the LAC Service Facility and the RedLAC NCP Network, have organised a launch event for Horizon Europe in LAC on next Thursday, July 8. The event will bring important information for Latin American stakeholders and researchers about how to take part in the program, with presentations on specific calls targeting LAC countries or matching the cooperation priority areas between LAC and the European Union (EU).

The launch event will be held in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish and will be live-streamed on Youtube.

Research actors from the public and the private sector from both LAC and the European Research Area (ERA) are invited to attend. Registration is mandatory, check out the agenda and register now here!

El Foro Estratégico Europeo de Infraestructuras de Investigación (ESFRI) ha anunciado la aprobación de 11 nuevas Infraestructuras de Investigación que se incluirán en la hoja de ruta ESFRI 2021. La aprobación se ha decidido tras analizar los resultados de la evaluación de las 18 propuestas presentadas por el Comité Ejecutivo del ESFRI.

Las 11 infraestructuras aprobadas que se incluirán en la Hoja de Ruta representan una inversión de 4.100 millones de euros en ciencia de excelencia, lo que contribuirá a afrontar los retos europeos. Se trata de:

• EBRAINS - European Brain ReseArch INfrastructureS, una infraestructura digital distribuida en la interfaz de la neurociencia, la informática y la tecnología, que ofrece a científicos y desarrolladores herramientas y servicios avanzados para la investigación del cerebro.
• EIRENE RI - Research Infrastructure for EnvIRonmental Exposure assessment in Europe, la primera infraestructura de la UE sobre el exposoma humano (determinantes ambientales de la salud).
• ET - Telescopio Einstein, el primer y más avanzado observatorio de ondas gravitacionales de tercera generación, con una sensibilidad sin precedentes que situará a Europa en la vanguardia de la investigación sobre las ondas gravitacionales.
• EuPRAXIA - European Plasma Research Accelerator with Excellence in Applications, una instalación de aceleración distribuida, compacta e innovadora basada en la tecnología del plasma, tiene previsto construir un acelerador de plasma accionado por haz de electrones en el área metropolitana de Roma, seguido de un acelerador de plasma accionado por láser en territorio europeo.
• GGP - Programa Generaciones y Género, cuyo objetivo es proporcionar datos longitudinales de alta calidad y comparables entre países para responder a los apremiantes retos científicos y sociales en materia de dinámica demográfica y familiar.
• GUIDE - Growing Up in Digital Europe-EuroCohort, la primera encuesta comparativa europea de cohortes de nacimiento, cuyo objetivo es apoyar el desarrollo de políticas sociales para la mejora del bienestar de los niños, los jóvenes y sus familias en toda Europa.
• MARINERG-i - Offshore Renewable Energy Research Infrastructure (Infraestructura de investigación sobre energías renovables en alta mar), que se propone convertirse en la principal infraestructura de investigación distribuida a escala internacional en el sector de las energías renovables en alta mar (ORE), con una red de instalaciones de ensayo repartidas por toda Europa.
• OPERAS - Acceso Abierto en el Espacio Europeo de Investigación a través de la Comunicación Académica, la RI distribuida para permitir la Ciencia Abierta y mejorar las prácticas de comunicación académica en las Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (SSH) en línea con la Nube Europea de Ciencia Abierta.
• RESILIENCE - Infraestructura de Estudios Religiosos: Herramientas, Innovación, Expertos, Conexiones y Centros, una RI científica única e interdisciplinar para todos los Estudios Religiosos, que construye una plataforma de alto rendimiento, suministra herramientas y acceso a datos físicos y digitales a estudiosos de todas las disciplinas científicas.
• SLICES - Scientific Large-scale Infrastructure for Computing/Communication Experimental Studies (Infraestructura científica a gran escala para estudios experimentales de computación/comunicación) ambiciona convertirse en una RI de impacto en las Ciencias Digitales, incluidas las preocupaciones relativas al consumo de energía y la aplicación del Green Deal.
• SoBigData++ RI - Infraestructura Integrada Europea para la Minería Social y el Análisis de Big Data, un recurso para compartir conjuntos de datos, métodos, habilidades de investigación y recursos computacionales para apoyar la comprensión de los fenómenos sociales a través de la lente de Big Data.

La aprobación de estas nuevas 11 infraestructuras de investigación espera reforzar la Hoja de Ruta mediante la inclusión de nuevos proyectos estratégicos y corresponde a un nuevo nivel de ambición para desarrollar instalaciones únicas y complejas para la ciencia de frontera, con el apoyo de un renovado impulso a las inversiones en RI. Consulte Página web de ESFRI para más información.

Jana Kolar es elegida próxima Presidenta del ESFRI
El ESFRI también ha anunciado la elección de Jana Kolar como próxima presidenta del Foro, a partir de junio de 2022 y durante dos años. Jana Kolar es directora ejecutiva de CERIC-ERIC y cuenta con una amplia experiencia, que abarca desde el desarrollo y la aplicación de políticas, la investigación y la innovación, hasta el emprendimiento.

Más información sobre la elección del Dr. Kolar aquí.

Ya están aquí los primeros programas de trabajo de Horizonte Europa El sitio programas de trabajo establece las oportunidades de financiación en el marco de Horizonte Europa para el periodo 2021 - 2022. El programa de trabajo principal se estructura del siguiente modo:

• Acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie y Infraestructuras de investigación en el marco del Pilar I
• Todos los grupos del Pilar II: Salud; Cultura, Creatividad y Sociedad Inclusiva; Seguridad Civil para la Sociedad; Industria Digital y Espacio; Energía Climática y Movilidad; Alimentación, Bioeconomía, Recursos Naturales, Agricultura y Medio Ambiente.
• Ecosistemas europeos de innovación en el marco del Pilar III
• Ampliación de la participación y fortalecimiento del Espacio Europeo de Investigación

Las convocatorias del tema Infraestructuras de investigación, alineados en el pilar I, se dividen en cinco destinos que puede consultar aquí:

• Destino - Desarrollar, consolidar y optimizar el panorama europeo de infraestructuras de investigación, manteniendo el liderazgo mundial (INFRADEV), para contribuir a un Espacio Europeo de Investigación fuerte, excelente e impactante, reforzando las capacidades de RI en Europa, su papel a nivel mundial y la elaboración de políticas en este ámbito;
• Destino - Habilitación de un ecosistema EOSC operativo, abierto y FAIR (INFRAEOSC), con el objetivo de ofrecer una "Red de Datos y Servicios FAIR" para la Ciencia: un entorno virtual de confianza que apoye la Ciencia Abierta, basado en funciones básicas horizontales clave, con sus correspondientes infraestructuras electrónicas, y capas de servicios accesibles a investigadores de todas las disciplinas en toda Europa; Horizonte Europa - Programa de Trabajo 2021-2022 Infraestructuras de Investigación.
• Destino - Servicios de IR para apoyar la investigación sanitaria, acelerar la transformación ecológica y digital y avanzar en el conocimiento de frontera (INFRASERV), con especial atención a la prestación de servicios integrados de IR para permitir la I+I que aborda los principales retos sociales, especialmente en salud, en apoyo de la transformación ecológica y digital y garantizando la resiliencia a las crisis, así como para apoyar la investigación impulsada por la curiosidad y el avance del conocimiento de frontera en amplios dominios científicos;
• Destino - Nueva generación de instrumentación, herramientas y métodos científicos y soluciones digitales avanzadas (INFRATECH), para posibilitar nuevos descubrimientos y mantener las RI europeas al más alto nivel de excelencia, allanando al mismo tiempo el camino hacia soluciones innovadoras para los retos de la sociedad y nuevas aplicaciones industriales, productos y servicios;
• Destino - Conectividad de redes en investigación y educación - Posibilitar la colaboración sin fronteras (INFRANET), que proporciona redes de gran ancho de banda y servicios de red para interconectar investigadores, datos y recursos informáticos de forma no discriminatoria, independientemente de la ubicación de los usuarios y los recursos, para permitir a los científicos llevar a cabo una investigación excelente.

Otros programas de trabajo

• Consejo Europeo de Investigación (CEI)
• Centro Común de Investigación (CCI)
• Consejo Europeo de Innovación (CEI)

¡No pierda la oportunidad! Consulte todos los documentos de referencia de los programas de trabajo aquí.

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 aquí.

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

The European Commission has announced the dates for the first edition of the Horizon Europe Info Days.

From June 28 to July 9, prospective applicants and other stakeholders of EU research and innovation will have the opportunity to receive information and ask questions about the funding instruments and processes of Horizon Europe. The event will be open for participation without prior registration.

Throughout the ten days there will be sessions related to nine topics, each dedicated to a different cluster or part of the new program. Research Infrastructures will have their turn on June 28 and the program is already available aquí.

Horizon Europe Info Days full calendar includes:

• 28 Jun – Infrastructures
• 29 & 30 Jun – Digital, industry & space (cluster 4)
• 30 June – Civil security for society (cluster 3)
• 1 July – Culture, creativity & inclusive society (cluster 2)
• 1 July – The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: what is new under Horizon Europe
• 2 July – Health (cluster 1)
• 5 & 6 July – Climate, energy & mobility (cluster 5)
• 7 & 8 July – Food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture & environment (cluster 6)
• 9 July – European Research Area (ERA) & Widening

Check out the full program aquí.