The BELLA II Ideathon on Innovation in Agrifood Systems in Central America and the Caribbean closed its registration period on February 2 with great success. The expectations of the registered groups were exceeded, reaching 114 participants.

The participating teams are made up of experts from different sectors of the digital ecosystem, including universities, research centers, specialized international organizations, large research infrastructures, multilateral development banks, the European Commission's DG-RTD, the SCALAC and BSC supercomputing centers, associative collaborations, and government agencies related to issues of agriculture and food security, innovation and technology.

Participants come from 28 countries around the world. From Latin America and the Caribbean, experts from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Grenada will participate; from North America, the United States; from Europe, Italy and the Netherlands; from Asia, India; and Africa, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Gambia, Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Ideathon is organized by RedCLARA, the BELLA II project, and the European Union, with the support of FAO, GIZ, IICA, LACNET, GÉANT and ESA, to stimulate the collaborative generation of ideas to transform agri-food systems to make them more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable in the Dry Corridor of Central America, using different technologies related to digital transformation: IoT, AI, advanced computing, 5G, Industry 4.0, Big Data, Web 3.0, among others.