The CILAC Forum is holding a new colloquium on November 16 with leaders from the region, focused on the role of parliaments in the development of scientific policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since its launch, more than 22 thousand people have been part of the meetings of the #CienciaEnMovimiento cycle of CILAC.
In recent years, while the world faced the COVID-19 pandemic, science, technology and innovation were called to star in the epic adventure of knowledge in the face of an unprecedented multidimensional crisis. The era demonstrated the relevance of the role of science in society, and (perhaps more than ever before) the need to involve different audiences in debates about emerging scientific issues.
Daily life was in check, science was generous, and policies were not always up to the hour. In the different national and regional realities of Latin America and the Caribbean, much has been discussed about the conditions under which scientific and technological development takes place. Although enormous and diverse efforts have been made, the panorama in the region presents heterogeneous realities from which challenges and demands arise for politics, such as: insufficient public budgets, weak infrastructure, science and country development agendas not always in tune, stimuli scarce for the training of researchers, evaluation and accreditation systems that are not always stimulating, dependent scientific ecosystems, draining of brains convened by central countries, and a long etcetera.
In this scenario, with a demonstrated need for solvent scientific ecosystems, what role does the Congresses and Parliaments of the region have to play? How to nurture the legislative decisions that must be made on issues of such high relevance, in which the future of a nation and a community is at stake - critically? What has changed in parliamentary settings, with respect to the consideration of science, after the pandemic experience? What future lies ahead in the relations between science and society, seen through legislative bodies? What is the role of politics for science?
At this meeting of the CILAC Forum, these concerns will be addressed, summoning representatives who today occupy relevant seats in their national and regional Congresses, to discuss these challenges. They will participate in the meeting Miguel Enrique Charbonet (Parlatino Deputy – Cuba), Lilia Puig (Parlasur Legislator – Argentina), together with Ernesto Fernández Polcuch (Director, UNESCO Regional Science Office for Latin America and the Caribbean), moderated by Alma Cristal Hernández-Mondragón.
NOV 16 – 5 p.m. (URU/ARG/BRA) – sign up here to receive a notification about the start of the meeting and other activities of the CILAC Forum