The Project

The Project

The WINDS Latin America project brings together the experiences and networks of three support actions that have been run in the last years (Eurolatis, EU-LAT and @LIS ISN) and aims at deepening strategic research cooperation between Europe and Latin America in the field of Information and Communication Technologies, focusing in Argentina, Brasil y Mexico.

WINDS wants to mobilize existing networks and research communities around the ICT priorities of the European Union´s 7th Framework Programme, resulting into a multinational and multistakeholder community that will involve EU and LA ICT researchers, policy makers and users.

WINDS-LA provides the following services:

• Information services on European and Latin American excellence research, R&D actors, projects, results, cooperation opportunities;
• Collaboration services to facilitate the aggregation of research actors around specific themes and the preparation of collaboration projects;
• Three research collaboration conferences in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico and a final Conference in Brussels;
• An open consultation process that involves the main European and Latin American stakeholders of ICT research and that will lead to a consensus-based roadmap for future R&D in an LA-EU collaboration perspective.

News and ongoing activities

In its fist ten months of activities, WINDS-LA has carried on an extensive mapping of the main research actors and projects and of the most important ICT research themes of common interest and benefit for future EU-LA cooperation.
Then, WINDS organised its first research collaboration Conference in Rio de Janeiro (see www.winds-la.eu), gathering ICT researchers and policy makers and facilitating collaboration between EU and Brazil in the ICT research field. The WINDS-LA website is the entry point for all these activities, by registering in the site you will be able to get information on the WINDS mapping, events, to download the WINDS national reports, to contribute to the WINDS policy consultation, and to join the WINDS EU-LA research clusters.

More at >> www.winds-la.eu

The Seventh Framework Programme

The Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7) is the European Union’s main instrument for funding research in Europe. FP7, which applies to the years 2007-2013, is the natural successor to the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), and is the result of years of consultation with the scientific community, research and policy making institutions, and other interested parties.

FP7 Structure

• Cooperation – fostering collaboration between industry and academia to gain leadership in key technology areas.
• Ideas – supporting basic research at the scientific frontiers (implemented by the European Research Council).
• People – supporting mobility and career development for researchers both within and outside Europe.
• Capacities – helping develop the capacities that Europe needs to be a thriving knowledge-based economy.
• Nuclear research (Euratom programme) – developing Europe’s nuclear fission and fusion capabilities.

The international dimension of FP7

In FP7 the international dimension is no longer confined to a specific scientific and technological cooperation programme but is now inherent in all European Community research activities.

This international policy has three objectives:

• To support European competitiveness through strategic partnerships with third countries in selected fields of science and by engaging the best third country scientists to work in and with Europe.
• To enhance the production of knowledge and scientific excellence by enabling European universities, research institutions and firms to establish contact with their partners in third countries, thereby facilitating access to research environments outside Europe and promoting synergies on a global scale.
• To address specific problems that third countries face or that have a global character, on the basis of mutual interest and mutual benefit.

• CORDIS
• ICT National Contact Points
• FP7 Helpdesk
• Research in FP7

ICT research in Argentina

Since the deep economic crisis Argentina has undergone in December 2001 and most of 2002, there has been a surprising economic recovery and an increase in the expenditure in science and technology in its relation to GDP. However, Argentina’s National budget for AC&T is still significantly lower than other Latin American countries’, such as Brazil, Mexico, and Chile. ICT research in the countryfocuses on open source, security/safety, intellectual property, software for agricultural activities, e-government, e-vote, and mobility. A probable future development in the short run is S&T Software: nuclear, engineering, network optimization applications, logistics, traffic, biology, chemical models, graphic tools and applications, etc. ICT for Sustainable energy management is also an urgent issue.

More information in the Argentina’s National Report

ICT research in Costa Rica

Costa Rica, although a small country, is very powerful in ICT. Besides that Costa Rica possesses one of the highest standards of education in Latin America, the significant arrival of foreign direct investment in IT and knowledge intensive activities has completely converted its economy into a tech-led market. They are the most densely networked country of Latin America and Costa Rica has the highest software exports per capita in the region. Costa Rica represents a dynamic eco-system of domestic and foreign interests, where the R&D potential is continuing to grow. It presents a very capable environment with which to develop joint ventures and collaborative projects.

More information in the Costa Rica’s National Report

ICT research in Uruguay

Uruguay also has a very advanced ICT infrastructure and IT industry. They rank the world 3rd highest in the ratio of ICT exports in relation to annual production (after India and Ireland). The entrance of new multinational ICT companies in recent years has led to an increasing amount of investment for ICT development. The creation of new Free Trade Zones in the country denotes an important and attractive economic characteristic for foreign investment. A new developing and strong industry in Uruguay is the audiovisual industry that presents strong capabilities with use of ICT such as digital broadcasting. There exist many favourable opportunities to cooperate with Uruguayan partners on ICT projects.

More information in the Uruguay’s National Report

• On the WINDS-LA website: full reports on Argentina, Brazil, Mexico.
• On the SOLAR-ICT website: full reports on Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

Existing EU-LA policy dialogue on S&T

The European Union gives great importance to cooperation in Science and Technology with Latin America: Science & Technology Agreements exist with Argentina (since 2001), Brazil (since 2004), Chile (since 2003) and Mexico (since 2005); in parallel, the EU is supporting S&T Liaison Offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Moreover, EU-LA dialogue on S&T is complementary to the existing bi-regional dialogue on Information Society, supported by the @LIS Programme, and instrumental to reach the common ALCUE knowledge area, as stated in the conclusions of the last EU-LAC Summit, held in Vienna in 2006.

ICT themes of EU-LA common interest

In this context ICT research plays a key role, both due to its transversal nature and to the important share of ICT in the frame of FP7. WINDS-LA aims at fostering EU-LA policy dialogue on ICT research in a sustainable perspective, with the aim to reach of a joint EU-LA Roadmap for ICT research. The practical outputs of this work will be a White Paper on EU-LA collaboration on ICT Research and a Sustainable High Level Multistakeholder Committee, a group of public and private actors in charge of following and monitoring and supporting the cooperation between the two regions in the ICT field. These issues have been identified as set of priorites of EU-LA common interest and benefit, on which future ICT cooperation (including EU funded projects of FP7) could focus, to properly respond both to the political priorities of the EU and of the Latin American region and to the need to build excellent Euro- Latin-American research consortia:

• ICT for social inclusion, accessibility, connectivity
• ICT for environment and biodiversity
• ICT and energy
• eHealth
• Digital libraries and learning networks
• Security and prevention systems, self defending networks
• Grid computing, massive data processing, e-science
• Software engineering
• Mobile/ubiquitous computing
• eGovernment & services to citizen

Consultation Process

In the WINDS-LA website it is possible to contribute to the definition of common EU-LA ICT research priorities, not only by commenting the results of the WINDS research work, but also providing examples of excellent institutions and projects in specific areas.

WINDS@Buenos Aires, 21-22 November 2007