The Diplomat
A delegation of the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI), under the Ministry of Science and Innovation, visited Argentina, Chile and Uruguay this week to explore formulas for strategic collaboration with counterpart agencies, ministries of Science, Technology and Innovation and scientific and research associations in these countries.
The delegation was composed of Domènec Espriu, director of the AEI, and Joaquín Serrano, head of Transversal Scientific-Technical Programs of the Agency, who were accompanied by the cultural and scientific counselors of the Spanish Embassies in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile and by the delegate of the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation in the Southern Cone.
The visit began last Monday and Tuesday in Buenos Aires, where the Spanish delegation participated in the EU-LAC Convention on Raw Materials 2023 and Serrano presented the European initiative ERA-MIN, a transnational research program for raw materials and circular economy of which the AEI is a member. They also met with top-level representatives from the Argentine National Agency for Scientific and Technological Promotion, the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and the Argentine Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
On Wednesday, the delegation traveled to Montevideo to visit the training center of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). Later, they held a meeting with the president of the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) and ended the day with a meeting with representatives of the National Council for Innovation, Science and Technology (CONICYT).
On Thursday and Friday, the AEI representatives traveled to Santiago, Chile, where they met with representatives of the Ministry of Science and Technology and held meetings with the Science Office of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile and with the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID). The day concluded with a visit to the Association of Spanish Scientists and Researchers in Chile (ACIECHILE).
For the director of the AEI, the objective of these institutional visits is “to open dialogue and establish a forum for collaboration between agencies supporting R&D (research and innovation) in these countries”. Likewise, according to Espriu, the AEI is interested in “exploring the possibility of sharing a database of evaluators and researchers that provides value and knowledge transfer between researches from different countries” and in “implementing new strategies and models of cooperation in different branches of science, of mutual interest between Spain and different Ibero-American countries, and with which there is already a great tradition of scientific collaboration”.
Espriu also warned of the importance of creating synergies with Ibero-American countries in areas of mutual strategic interest, after some years of socio-economic uncertainty, and highlighted the “enormous impact that joining forces in certain social challenges with the Ibero-American research community will have”. In his opinion, “these countries have infrastructures and a world-class scientific community with which we are in excellent harmony”. Therefore, “this is the perfect moment to continue strengthening ties and, with the invaluable support of the science departments of the Spanish Embassies, to open new avenues of internationalization for our system,” he added.
