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The RedCLARA and CIEMAT proposal: “The digital transformation as an enabler for enhancing food security and a clean energy transition” was one of the three selected in the VI EU-LAC Call for the co-organization of events on topics relevant to the bi-regional partnership between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The results were announced on June 9th, after an evaluation process with the support of a jury of experts. The Call “has received numerous and solid proposals, which shows the interest in and the relevance of the topics of the call for bi-regional dialogue and exchange”, said the EU-LAC Foundation website.

In addition to the RedCLARA and CIEMAT proposal, focused on the topic of digital transformation, two other proposals were selected: “International Conference Food Security: Challenges and Opportunities for the Relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean” by the National University of Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires (UNTREF), the Centre for International Information and Documentation in Barcelona (CIDOB) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and “Leaders of change for energy transition and digital transformation”  by Unión Iberoamericana de Municipalistas and Municipality of Valdivia (Chile).

The RedCLARA and CIEMAT next cornerstone event will aim to set up and launch a short-term roadmap for contributing to the strengthening of the bi-regional partnership process between the European Union, Latin America, and the Caribbean (EU-LAC), involving the participation and inputs from civil society and other social actors, as well as promoting association, mutual knowledge and improving the mutual visibility of the bi-regional actions. and profiting from the cross-cutting capabilities of the digital transformation for improving, not only digital collaboration, but also advances in the food and energy transition domains.

Digital transformation is changing the way in which science and technology develop and even how society is approaching services and necessities. Digitalization is playing a twofold role: as a developer, promoter, and carrier of new and/or enhanced capabilities; and as a key enabler of all other fields, with holistic and cross-cutting advances and solutions. Advanced digitization can be enhanced by changing the way in which research is being done providing new results, impact, revenue, and value-producing opportunities, a fact that will have a positive impact on the practices of the EU-LAC community.

The event co-organized by RedCLARA and CIEMAT will address how the use of modern computing techniques, such as High-Performance Computing (HPC), the ability to analyze large amounts of data (Big Data), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can benefit agricultural and energy production. Also, it will address topics such as cybersecurity, cyber-robustness, and blockchain for traceability and its impact in these sectors.

The co-organizers have solid expertise in digital transformation and also hold a wide presence in high-level international bodies. Also, the proposing team has wide expertise in the organization of this kind of event, being the latest successful one BELLA Ideathon: Copernicus innovation challenge or the upcoming “BELLA Hackathon: Copernicus Innovation Development" to be held on July 2023 as part of the EU-LAC Summit.

RedCLARA is an international organization that connects Latin American and Caribbean Research and Education Networks (RNIE) and CIEMAT (Spain) a public research organization of the Spanish Government, with a long history of collaboration with LAC.