Dear Reader,

Welcome to the sixth issue of the EU-LA ICT Weather Forecast newsletter, produced by the SOLAR-ICT and the WINDS-LA projects with the support of the European Commission, presenting reflections, news and events related to Europe-Latin America cooperation in ICT research.

After two years of intense work, including among others three national conferences, seven workshops, regional presentations, two international policy seminars, online discussions and consultations, five released newsletters, a final conference in Brussels, SOLAR-ICT and WINDS-LA have reached the end of their lifecycle. WINDS-LA focused its actions on Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, while SOLAR-ICT did the same on Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay. During the ICT-2008 Event in Lyon, the Europe's biggest research event for information and communication technologies, and the following evens organised in Brussels, both projects presented their balances and, in particular, the capacities, advantages, and potentialities that Latin America has as a strong partner in ICT scientific cooperation with Europe. Specifically, SOLAR-ICT and WINDS-LA are proud to announce that participation of Latin American institutions in the ICT part of FP7 is steadily growing with respect to FP6 and that Latin American researchers are more and more interested in cooperation with Europe, as proven by the massive presence of Latin American researchers in the ICT-2008 event in Lyon. In order to maintain this positive momentum of EU-LA cooperation in ICT research, the European Commission is supporting a new action called PRO-Ideal, which was recently launched to follow SOLAR-ICT and WINDS-LA work in Argentina, Brazil (Sao Paulo southwards), Chile and Uruguay. At the same time, WINDS-LA has been opening up its activities to the Caribbean region through the WINDS-Caribe project, an action focusing on Jamaica, Martinique and Dominican Republic. Finally, INNOVA and MENON Network, respectively coordinators of SOLAR-ICT and WINDS-LA, as well as all the partners of the two projects, would like to thank all the recipients of this newsletter for their active participation in these two years of profitable, intense, and enjoyable work.

Cordially,
The SOLAR-ICT and WINDS-LA Partners

A demonstration of the interest and of the level of maturity of EU-LA collaboration in ICT research is given by the growing participation of LA institutions in ICT-FP7 projects.

The trend of participation of LA actors in projects funded under FP7 as well as the amount of budget received in the first three Calls of FP7 is much more positive  with respect to FP6, with some countries which already overcome their participation rate in the whole of FP7.

As shown in the table below, the countries which counted with a strong participation in FP6 confirmed and increased their share in the first part of FP7, and at the same time countries which had not been involved in FP6 started to participate in FP7 projects

If this trend continues, Latin America will be able to position itself as one of the strongest regions of the world in terms of participation in FP7-ICT projects. For more information on FP7, please visit http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7.

On the occasion of the ICT Lyon 2008 and the ending of both projects, SOLAR-ICT and WINDS-LA organised a full week of events in order to promote Latin American ICT research capacities and competencies in Europe and to presents theirs outcomes and experiences in a final joint conference.

Latin American delegations actively participated in the biennial ICT Event which took place in Lyon, France (25-27 November 2008) organised by the European Commission's Directorate General for the Information Society and Media. In this event, the stand called “Latin America ICT Gateway” was the point of reference for all Lyon participants willing to have information on LA ICT competencies & capacities and contact LA potential project partners to work together. More than 150 people visited the stand and left their contact information to search new possibilities. On the 26th of November, a dedicated Networking Session was organised to facilitate the contacts and enhance even more the networking activities between LA partners and the European counterpart. More than 70 people attended the session and took advantage of having LAC delegates right there to exchange information and explore possibilities of joining efforts.

Following the ICT-2008 Event, on the 28 of November 2008, WINDS-LA and SOLAR-ICT projects organised a Project Concept Note Day to capitalise on the information received, the contacts made and the ideas that arose during the previous days. Gathering more than 30 people, this workshop was an excellent moment to discuss some specific project ideas and to check the practicability of being involved in FP7.  

On the following week, Latin American delegates were invited to visit Brussels where some special activities were organised previous to the final conference. On December 1, the LA delegation visited the European Parliament in the morning and participated in a special encounter at the Consortium for the Commercial Promotion of Catalonia (COPCA) headquarters office in the afternoon. The objective of this meeting was to explore working structures and opportunities for collaborations in FP7 through presentations by Ms. Ana Coello, COPCA European Delegation Director, Ms. Margaretha Mazura, Secretary General European Multimedia Forum, Mr Antonio Alfaro, Rose Technology, Mr. Massimo Busuoli, Director ENEA representation in Brussels, and Ms. Valentina Pinna, Head the Office of the Union of Lombardy Chamber of Commerce.

SOLAR-ICT and WINDS-LA organised the Final Conference “Building ICT Research Bridges on the Atlantic” on 2 December 2008 at the Residence Palace in Brussels, in the heart of the European Union Area. The joint meeting draws a very good attendance, including press and media, European Commission and Parliament officials, members of the European Technology Platforms, sector association, lobbies, the ICT stakeholders acting in the European capital, and a large delegation of ICT private & public companies, research centres and universities from the Latin American and the Caribbean regions (Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay). The event represented a great opportunity to show the audience cases of successful EU-LA cooperation in the ICT research arena and  present Latin American capacities in the field. WINDS-LA and SOLAR-ICT delegates presented their experiences in collaborating with Europe in the ICT sector as well as their capacities and know-how to potential future partners

As said before, both SOLAR-ICT and WINDS-LA are coming to an end in December 2008. Nevertheless, a number of platforms remain available and operational to support EU-LAC collaboration in ICT research, such as:

PRO-IDEAL: http://www.pro-ideal.eu

Its acronym stands for “Promotion of an ICT Dialogue between Europe and America Latina.” This project was recently launched with the aim of promoting the ICT programme of the European Commission, within its Seventh Framework Programme (7FP), in Argentina, Brazil (Sao Paulo southwards), Chile and Uruguay.

CYTED: http://www.cyted.org/

The Program for Science and Technology for Development (CYTED in Spanish) is an international scientific and technology multilateral cooperation programme for the Iberoamerican region (19 countries from Latin America, Spain and Portugal).

VIT@LIS: http://www.red-vitalis.org

The VIT@LIS Network is an association of European and Latin American and Caribbean institutions and individuals active in subjects related to the Information Society (e-learning, e-health, e-government, e-inclusion, etc.), committed to share information and results and to collaborate towards the creation of a more inclusive and open Information Society for all.

WINDS-Caribe: http://www.winds-lac.eu

The WINDS-Caribe project aims at deepening strategic R&D cooperation between Europe and the Caribbean by building a multinational and multistakeholder community involving relevant R&D European and Caribbean actors (researchers, policy makers, users) and by identifying common needs, research issues and opportunities for cooperative R&D between the two regions, setting the basis for the formulation of a common strategy for future research. The WINDS-Caribe consortium is composed by: RIVELO (Martinique); University of West Indies - CARIMAC (Jamaica); Univerdidad Iberoamericana (Dominican Republic); Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya (Spain); Fundación Redes y Desarrollo (FUNREDES); and MENON Network (Belgium).

FP7-ICT Proposers' Day, 22 January 2009, Budapest, Hungary

Organised by The European Commission's Information Society and Media Directorate-General in cooperation with the Hungarian National Office for Research and Technology

Information and Communication Technologies Research, the ICT Proposers’ Day is designed to help you meet potential collaborators and facilitate the formation of research consortia. European Commission staff will also be present to advise on the specifics of the 2009-2010 work programme, and on the general rules and procedures for participating in calls for proposals. More info here.

5-6 February 2009: WINDS-Caribe Conference in Dominican Republic

The second WINDS-Caribe Conference will take place in Santo Domingo on the 5^th and 6^th of February. The event will aim at gathering ICT researchers and research stakeholders from the whole Spanish-speaking Caribbean sub-region, in order to present the possibilities offered by FP7 and to facilitate aggregation and networking of researchers around potential areas of collaboration with Europe. The Conference is organised under the coordination of the WINDS-Caribe local partner, UNIBE. For more information please contact Mr. Darwin Muñoz, d.munoz@unibe.edu.do.

 
Third week of March 2009: WINDS-Caribe Conference in Jamaica

The third WINDS-Caribe Conference will take place in Martinique on the 3^rd week of March (dates under definition). The event will aim at gathering ICT researchers and research stakeholders from the whole English-speaking Caribbean sub-region, in order to present the possibilities offered by FP7 and to facilitate aggregation and networking of researchers around potential areas of collaboration with Europe. The Conference is organised under the coordination of the WINDS-Caribe local partner, CARIMAC, University of West Indies, in collaboration with the Euroafrica-ICT project. For more information please contact Mr. Roderick Sanatan, roderick.sanatan@uwimona.edu.jm.