Dr. Salvarezza participated in the debate at the Industrial-Technological Pole for Defence I+T

In the framework of the debates for the production of the white book for Defence, the president of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Dr. Roberto Salvarezza, participated in the board “Technological Sovereignty: Research and Development” of the conferences at the Industrial-Technological Pole for Defence I+T that were held at the Libertador Building (Edificio Libertador), headquarters of the Ministry of Defence.

Dr. Salvarezza shared the board – moderated by the Secretary of Science, Technology and Production for Defence, Santiago Rodriguez- with Federico Agüero, president of the Scientific and Technical Research Institute for Defence, Eng. Hugo Albani, INVAP (Applied Research) manager, and Dr. Ruth Ladenheim, Secretary of Planning and Policies of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation of Argentina.

During the meeting, Dr. Salvarezza spoke about the main guidelines of work at the CONICET during the last years and the achievements of the institution, which had a sustainable development from the public policies supported by the technological and scientific growth of the country. “My proposal is to interact more and take advantage of the resources we have”, the president of CONICET highlighted.

Likewise, Salvarezza explained the formal structure of the autarchic institution – board composition, roles, strategic partners of CONICET, number of centres and institutes throughout the country, budget-, and remarked that in the last decade, for instance, in terms of human resources, the number of researchers tripled and the Council’s fellows quadrupled.

Furthermore, he spoke about the Oriented Research Projects (PIO), whose aims are oriented at providing scientific solutions for concrete needs of the society. Among other aspects, Salvarezza remarked the diverse agreements of international cooperation, technology transfer and linkage. “At this moment, we have more than 500 patents, and the number of required high level technical services (STAN) that CONICET provides is increasing”, he indicated.

Finallly, the president of Council focused on the new model of “CONICET plus companies” currently under development. The first example is Y-TEC, the company that the Council started with YPF.

About the White Book

The White Book is an official document that contains the main guidelines of the policy and the defence system of the country. Its production and update of contents contributes to the achievement of two main objectives. First, it involves the democratic political leadership in a process of accountability regarding the characteristics, objectives, the means and the capacities of the national defence system by providing the society the access to key information (number, the way and the reasons) related to the public resources’ allocations to this sector.

And, secondly, the promotion of basic guidelines of the policy and doctrine of national defence entails revealing strategic positioning of the country at an international and regional level thereby preventing the emergence of wrong or distorted perceptions that could affect the cooperation and trust bonds between the nations, while promoting peaceful coexistence and democratic principles of government.

Following this recomentations, Argentina published its White Book for Defence in 1999 and subsequently in 2010, predicting a new edition. For this reason, open debate cycles will be held throughout the year and will include conferences in different parts of the country in order to ensure broad participation of the community in the process of the development of its content.