EU-CELAC Working Group
EU-CELAC Working Group on Research Infrastructure
The EU-CELAC Working Group on Research Infrastructures (WG RI) was officially created in March 2017, highlighting the importance of Research Infrastructures (RI) as one of three strategic pillars of the EU-CELAC Common Research Area (CRA).
The mandate is clear: “to support policy coordination and the exchange of information to mobilise and strengthen RI cooperation between both regions, contributing to solve the global challenges while facilitating researchers’ mobility and the international access of RI”.
Co-chaired by the European Commission and Uruguay
Composed by representatives of the EU and LAC Ministers
EU Member States represented by national delegates: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
In Latin America and the Caribbean currently 19 countries are members of the Working Group: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Meets at least once a year to decide future steps
The prioritisation of five thematic areas for cooperation: energy; biodiversity and climate change; food security, health and emerging technologies.
The organisation of 3 policy workshops on road-mapping, access policies and governance models with internationally recognised Research Infrastructures experts. The workshops took place in Viena, 2018; Costa Rica, 2019 and Brasilia, 2019. Further policy workshops and webinars will take place in 2020 and 2021.
Researchers’ exchanges between both regions. For the moment, 35 LAC and 20 EU RI managers have crossed the Atlantic to visit Research Infrastructures interested in establishing cooperation activities and facilitating the access to international researchers.
EU-LAC ResInfra gives support to the WG RI in the development of a stable framework of cooperation and a realistic roadmap that will impact on the internationalisation of RI from both regions.