Megaprojects, accelerators of development and regional integration. A viewpoint from the Southern Cone

SILVINA PONCE DAWSON

Simposio; Simposio "Simposio Megaproyectos, aceleradores de desarrollo e integración regional"; 2022

The existence of large projects opens the opportunity for the establishment of scientific collaborations at the regional level. In a region like Latin America and the Caribbean the efforts of individual countries can be potentiated when these efforts come together to set up a shared facility associated to a large project. The region is also the site of facilities and projects that are defined, designed and funded by countries with a much higher level of development. Besides constructing sophisticated facilities for shared use, large collaborative projects can have other scopes. A variety of interactions can be established in areas such as education, research, the practice and popularization of science, and with different actors playing key roles. Although intergovernmental and interinstitutional agreements are key to advance with these collaborations, the network of connections established by individual members of the scientific communities is also fundamental. In particular, scientists coordinated actions can change institutional environments, promote the advancement of certain research lines, increase the interaction with the population at large and with policy makers. In this talk I will mention a few examples trying to cover these various aspects focusing mainly in projects in which my country, Argentina, is involved.