From November 13 to 17, in Panama City, RedCLARA and the BELLA II Project will hold three events that will bring together decision-makers, strategic allies, researchers, professors, and academics for a week of discussion and exchange of strategic experiences for the strengthening of science, technology and innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean. The goal of the activities is to identify the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation and to seek the key elements for building a common agenda for economic and social development based on digital.
The week will begin with the TICAL Conference (November 13-14), which returns after a break in 2022, with the theme "Bridges for Transformation", highlighting the role of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in the digital transformation of the region. With the support of Panama's National Secretariat for Science, Technology, and Innovation (Senacyt), the event will bring together more than 200 people and will include the participation of international panelists and representatives of NRENs from Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and the United States.
BELLA II's third Open Strategic Dialogue, and the first at regional level, will take place on November 15, as part of a series of meetings being held during the first year of the project´s implementation. The aim of the Dialogue is to contribute to the achievement of the Project´s main objective, which is to strengthen and expand the regional digital ecosystem, facilitating relations and exchanges between companies, research centers, educational institutions, and academic networks in Latin America and Europe, in order to contribute to strengthening education, science, technology, and innovation.
The BELLA II project is one of the pillars of the Digital Alliance between Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe, signed in March of this year and reaffirmed during the III EU-CELAC Summit in Brussels in July of this year. During this meeting, the European Commission committed to a 45 billion euro investment package to be implemented in the region by 2027, through the Global Gateway Strategy. The week will concluded with the event "Digital Transformation as a facilitator for improving food security and clean energy transition". The activity, which will take place on 16 and 17 November, is organized by RedCLARA and the Spanish Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (Ciemat), with the support and sponsorship of the EU-LAC Foundation. Its objective is to define and provide a short-term roadmap to help strengthen the bi-regional partnership process and take advantage of the transversal capacities of the digital transformation to advance in the areas of food and energy transition. Among the topics to be addressed are the benefits for agriculture and energy production, 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).
All events will take place at the Marriott Panama Hotel. For more information, please visit the RedCLARA, BELLA II, or TICAL2023 websites, or write to
