THIRD MEETING OF SENIOR OFFICIALS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE COMMUNITY OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STATES (CELAC). Quito, Ecuador. September 15, 2015. In Quito, Province of Pichincha, Republic of Ecuador, Ministers and Senior Officials of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Member States of CELAC Considering the achievements of the Third Summit of Heads of State, held in Costa Rica on January 28 and 29, 2015, and recalling the resolutions adopted at the Second Meeting of Senior Officials in Science and Technology held in San Jose, Costa Rica, on April 1 and 2, 2014; where the need for acquisition of knowledge and upgrading of skills as a permanent and inclusive process in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, that will allow meeting the challenges and demands of society; and the availability of human talent with greater skills and capacities as a differentiator for progress and competitiveness of nations was highlighted. Also, considering the space of the Second EU-CELAC Summit which was held in Brussels on June 10th and 11th, 2015. Understanding that the internal and external challenges the region is facing, suggest the need to use the CELAC, as a privileged space for intra and interregional interaction and political dialogue, to concert key objectives and short and medium term goals that constitute a guideline of our work and action. The achievement of such objectives needs to be measurable and verifiable; and synthesized in a framework program, will develop responses to the acceleration of technological change in recent times, recognizing that the conditions in the region must be translated into challenges for developing skills that will allow the appropriation, use and promotion of endogenous scientific knowledge from the perspective of technology consumers. Agreeing that the scope of strategic planning based on education, science, technology and innovation, also involves promoting the development of critical analysis to debate about knowledge, science, technology, economic models and knowledge management oriented to the needs of Latin America and the Caribbean; Recognizing that the improvements in scientific-technological, productive and investment matters have become engines for social changes in the region, differing
from the pattern of concentration in the production of primary goods that dominate its exports so that their production structures of such economies will focus on goods and services of medium and high technological intensity, with significant increases in their innovation rates; Recognizing the need to promote access to information, technological breakdown, technology transfer in the field of South-South cooperation, the promotion of innovation with the relationship to private stakeholders;
DECLARE THAT:
1. They recognize as a priority the development and strengthening of regional policies of science, technology and innovation to contribute to the integral development of each country and of the region as a whole for which they approved the CELAC Action Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation. 2. They will promote scientific research and technological development through regional projects with social and productive impact in priority areas. 3. Groups of knowledge management and human resources are instructed to do the work in order to present proposals relating to the guidelines of the CELAC Action Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation CELAC as follows: a) Knowledge Management Group. Members: Argentina; Colombia; Ecuador; Venezuela; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Costa Rica; Nicaragua; Cuba; Bolivia; Mexico, Antigua and Barbuda, Chile, El Salvador, and Dominican Republic along with Brazil as coordinators: i.
Create and coordinate proper mechanisms for achieving institutionalism of the organisms and entities of the different member countries of CELAC.
ii.
Complement the existing initiatives of the region for promoting the development of a regional indexation system for scientific publications.
iii.
Promote the coordination and utilization of regional research networks, as well as the development of its infrastructure.
iv.
Develop programs for technology transfer and training of human capital among countries.
v.
Complement the efforts made in the region in order to have an inventory for the characterization and identification of scientific and technological capacities and demands of each member country, indicators in science, technology and innovation. Also, set guidelines for the development of scientific research programs of the region.
vi.
Identify financing funds and their domestic and foreign implementation mechanisms for institutionalism, execution of research and technological development projects with strong social and productive incidence in priority areas, as well as work in the different lines of seed capital and risk capital for promoting entrepreneurship for the development of innovation.
vii.
Promote stronger relations among the stakeholders of national systems of innovation, as a means for promoting growth and economic development and integration from diversity.
viii.
Develop a CELAC virtual platform in order to gather and disseminate information generated by member countries in relation to science, technology and innovation.
ix.
Promote the creation of a CELAC publishing house for publications related to science, technology and innovation, based on the experiences and improvements on the different fields of regional and subregional coordination.
x.
Build a Framework Agreement proposal and the mechanisms regarding new ways for the management of knowledge, science, technology and innovation.
xi.
Relations with third parties
b) Human Resources Group. Members: Argentina; Venezuela; Nicaragua; Trinidad and Tobago; Guatemala; Bolivia; Paraguay; Bahamas; Antigua and Barbuda, and Costa Rica along with Ecuador as coordinators:
i.
Develop a program of scientific recognition for researchers at regional level as a positioning and incentive for the development of scientific, technological and innovation related research which will consider the different experiences and improvements of the different fields of regional and subregional coordination.
ii.
Create an “Academic Mobility and Scholarships Program”, to promote integration, regional collaboration, as well as to eliminate language barriers through exchange of students and scientists in the public and private sectors, based on the existing regional initiatives and experiences, taking into account the need of designing instruments to deal with insertion and talent drain problems in the region.
iii.
Complement the initiative regarding the pool of project evaluators as well as of intellectual property examiners, based on existing experiences.
Coordinators from each group will present the corresponding roadmap proposal to their respective group in order to have a work schedule by the end of year 2015. 4. They will encourage the articulation and coordination with the various mechanisms for cooperation and regional and subregional integration in the area of Science, Technology and Innovation. 5. Within the framework of relations with the European Union, the countries confirm the importance of shaping an EU-CELAC common space for research and will actively participate in the meeting to be held in Brussels on November 25th and 26th, 2015, in order to build an action plan. Moreover, the importance of the EU: ALCUE-NET and ERANET – LAC projects is
recognized and the member countries thank the invitation made by the Republic of Argentina to participate in the “International seminar on EUCELAC Common Research Area; towards a long-term vision� to be held in the city of Buenos Aires on September 28 th, 2015. Countries of the European Union will be participating in this event. The Ministers of CELAC agree that the Republic of Argentina as coordinator or the ALCUE-NET project and, together with the CELAC Pro Tempore Presidency they will prepare the inputs needed for the meeting to be held in Brussels. 6. Biodiversity is declared heritage of great value that contributes to the comprehensive development of each country and the region as a whole. For this, the member countries recognize as priority the strengthening of regional policies concerning science, technology and innovation on biodiversity. Also, they commit to formulate a joint position regarding research and innovation on Biodiversity for the different countries, communities and regional or subregional mechanisms. 7. Intellectual property is stated as a priority area so that the CELAC member countries promote a new regulatory framework in accordance with the regional conditions and needs for incentivizing knowledge and innovation generation. 8. The member countries accept the proposal made by the CELAC Pro Tempore Presidency with regard to the collection and dissemination of information concerning programs and projects related to science, technology and innovation in the member countries of CELAC, as well as the identification of expertise of each of the members concerning science, technology and innovation in order to share and strengthen their experiences with other members.
9. The member countries extend warm thanks for the excellent organization of this meeting on behalf of the Ecuadorian hosts, while recognizing and congratulating the sustained efforts of the Pro Tempore Presidency to achieve concrete results that will allow the development of the objectives of the region.
10. The Pro Tempore Presidency and each one of the member countries shall follow the procedures corresponding to the interior of CELAC for the execution of the actions approved in this instrument.
This meeting was held with the participation of the following delegations: País
Delegación
Antigua and Barbuda
Hon. Michael Browne
me@michaelsbrowne.com
Mrs. Rosa Greenaway
janis-rosa@hotmail.com
Lic. Mónica Silenzi
msilenzi@mincyt.gob.ar
Hon. Jerome K. Fitzgerald
fitzgerald.jerome@gmail.com
Dr. Kalen St. LYR
karen.stcyr@moe.edu.bs
Hon. Ronald Jones
rjones@mes.gov.bb
Argentina Bahamas
Barbados Bolivia
Brasil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba
Lic. Felipe Roberto Sánchez Saravia sanchezsaravia@gmail.com Manuel Monroy manuel.monroy@embajadabolivia.ec Secretario Eron Bezerra eron.bezerra@mcti.gov.br Barbara D´Santanna bsanntana@mcti.gov.br Patricio Espinoza pespinoza@conicyt.cl Dr. Julián Pontón Silva jponton@colciencias.gov.co Eliana Ulate eliana.ulate@micit.go.cr Dr. Fernando Mario González Bermúdez MSc. Armando Rodríguez Batista
fmgonzalez@ceniai.inf.cu
El Salvador Guatemala Mexico
Dra. Erlinda Hándal Vega Ing. Armando Pokus Héctor Sámano
armando@citma.cu erlinda.handal@mined.go.sv apokus@concyt.gob.gt hsamano@conacyt.mx
Nicaragua
Honorable Ambassador Sidhartha Marin
smarin@cancilleria.gob.ni
Panama
Paraguay Peru Domenican Republic St. Kitts and Nevis Uruguay Venezuela 1
Ing. Telémaco Talavera Dr. Jorge Motta Claudia M. Guerrero
telemaco@ibw.com.ni jmotta@senacyt.gob.pa cguerrero@senacyt.gob.pa
Ing. Luis Alberto Lima Morra Juana Kuramoto Flor De Liz Tica
presidencia.conacyt@conacyt.gov.py jkuramoto@concytec.gob.pe flordeliztica@gmail.com
Dr. Plácido Gómez Ramírez
pgomezramirez@gmail.com
Dr. Leighton Naraine Gabriel Aintablian María Eugenia Carrasquel Pedro Albarrán Depablos
leightonnaraine@yahoo.com qaintablian@dicyt.gob.uy mcarrasquel@mppeudt.gob.ve pedroalba20@gmail.com Proposed by Ecuador PTP