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
