8 Oct 2013

AMERICAS EU-LAC ICT & e-Infrastructures Conference for R&D cooperation held in Campeche, Mexico on 3-4 October 2013

The AMERICAS Conference took place at the Convention Center of Campeche (Mexico) on 3-4 October 2013 in the framework of the CUDI’s Autumn Meeting, hosted by Universidad Autónoma de Campeche. The AMERICAS project has been promoting e-Infrastructures for e-Science collaboration to spread the benefits and power of world-class ICT-based infrastructures for R&D cooperation between Europe and Latin America. The main objectives of the EU-LAC ICT & e-Infrastructures Conference were to show the impact of e-Infrastructures used in different e-Science domains in Latin America: Life Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, Data Access & Preservation, Astronomy & Astrophysics, and to strengthen networking between ICT and e-Infrastructures communities, to exchange views, share information and identify new opportunities for R&D collaboration.

The Conference brought together over 200 participants from 10 countries: Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, USA, Spain, and also speakers from UK, Italy and the European Commission in Brussels that participated via videoconference. It was attended by delegates from RedCLARA and GEANT, Latin America’s NRENs (CUDI, RENATA, RedCONARE, RNP and REUNA), EU-LAC projects funded by the European Commission (AMERICAS, RISC, ELCIRA, CHAIN, M.-Inclusion) and other advanced computing initiatives, as well as researchers from Universities and industry (CISCO, NOKIA).

The opening session was chaired by Miguel González, of Tecnológico de Monterrey, and the Conference began with welcome addresses from Sergio Gabriel Matheos, Argentina’s Subsecretary of Institutional Coordination of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation (MINCYT) and e-Infrastructures NCP; followed by Carlos Casasús, Director General of CUDI, Yolanda Ursa, the AMERICAS coordinator; Moira Karosuo of CONACYT and Neil Hernández, of Tecnológico de Monterrey and ICT NCP.

The event showed the advance of ICT and e-Infrastructures research in Latin America and its potential for cooperation with Europe. It was organised around four topics:
  • EU-LAC cooperation in ICT & e-Infrastructures
  • e-Infrastructures in the EU-LAC political dialogue
  • ICT and e-Infrastructures priorities in Latin America
  • e-Infrastructures and Innovation in Latin America: Panel on Industry and Academia cooperation
The full agenda including presentations of the Conference can be found here.

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