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LA Referencia and CERN enter into agreement to promote and expand open science in Latin America
On Wednesday, October 24, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Council of LA Referencia and CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) to facilitate the use of the Zenodo repository for Latin American researchers and institutions.
In a ceremony held in Conicyt, Chile offices, it was highlighted that access to underlying research data is fundamental in order to validate the research results, create new knowledge, and ensure that publicly funded research is available to the public, since, in the case of Latin America, the vast majority of R & D is financed using public funds.
The agreement is the result of joint work that LA Referencia has been undertaking with COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories) and OpenAIRE, the European open science platform, to internationalize research infrastructures and ensure alignment across regions.
The ceremony, which was open to the community, was presided over by Patricia Muñoz, President of LA Referencia and Director of the Scientific Information Program of Conicyt. Presentations to provide context to the community were given by João Mendes Moreira Director of Scientific Information FCT / FCCN de Portugal; Kathleen Shearer, Executive Secretary of COAR and Tim Smith, Project Executive of Zenodo, Group Leader at CERN IT.
The objectives of this memorandum are:
- Promote the use of Zenodo as a non-commercial alternative for preserving and providing access to research data in Latin America, and initiate pilots with this infrastructure with an emphasis on results financed with public funds.
- Investigate the best technical alternatives for interoperability between Zenodo and LA Reference services.
- Explore the alternatives for technology transfer between Europe and Latin America related to scientific data.
The benefits of these efforts to connect interoperable regional infrastructures at the global level, led by the S & T government organizations and universities of the region, are being recognized. For example, the final report of the OpenAIRE 2020 project in 2018, states:
“At the political level, there is a growing recognition of the role of LA Referencia in Open Science as a partner of a major EU eInfrastructure, placing it in advantageous position terms of managing research data and the adoption of data repositories”
The pilot to implement actions in each country according to their realities will start in 2019. And the signatories of this agreement representing members of the LA Referencia Council were:
- Silvia Nakano; Directora Nacional de Planificación de Recursos Físicos, MINCYT / Argentina
- Bianca Amaro de Melo; Coordenadora-Geral de Pesquisa e Manutenção de Produtos Consolidados, IBICT / Brasil
- Eduardo Rojas Pineda; Director de Fomento a la Investigación, Colciencias / Colombia
- Andrea Mora Campos, Representante Subcomisión Conocimiento Abierto, CONARE / Costa Rica
- Patricia Muñoz Palma; Directora Programa de Información Científica, CONICYT / Chile
- Rosa María Guerrero Hernández; Investigadora, Viceministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología / El Salvador
- Margarita Ontiveros y Sánchez de la Barquera; Coordinadora General Consorcio Nacional de Recursos de Información Científica y Tecnológica, CONACYT / México
- Héctor Andrés Melgar Sasieta; Director de la Dirección de Evaluación y Gestión del Conocimiento, CONCYTEC / Perú
