Senacyt receives funds from Canada to carry out the project

Proposal from National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (Senacyt) for the development of a project that will benefit the countries of Central America, received an invitation from the Canadian government, through the International Development Research Center (IDRC).

Senacyt will receive 1.5 million Canadian dollars in three years to implement the project Central American Policy for Science, Technology and Open Innovation and mechanisms for measuring its impact on society.

The project will aim to strengthen the capacity of national scientific and technological councils (SGC) and regional scientific coordination bodies to fulfill priorities and improve national and regional systems of science, technology and innovation (STI)..

It will develop in Panama, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, through a consortium led by Senacyt, in which the City of Knowledge Foundation from Panama also participates; General Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SG-SICA), based in El Salvador; Commission for Scientific and Technological Development of Central America and Panama (CTCAP) through the Permanent Technical Secretariat of CTCAP, in Guatemala; and the General Secretariat of the Central American Council of Higher Universities (CSUCA) in Guatemala.

“This initiative was born with the motivation of promoting the results of the ongoing regional project, entitled Strengthening the capacity of science and innovation policy in member countries of SICA and that it is implemented with the financial support of IDRC Canada”, explains Dr. Eduardo Ortega-Barría, National Secretary of Senacyt.

The new proposal will consist of three phases. “First, a situational analysis of regional open FDI policies will be carried out. With the results obtained, we will work together with STI organizations in the region to jointly formulate regional instruments (repositories, common database systems, design of policy instruments, etc.), as well as country policy proposals that promote the adoption of an open, fairer and inclusive regional STI policy which considers a system of indicators for monitoring and evaluation; and the third component will be the education and training of managers of science, technology and open innovation”, explained Carlos Maynor Salinas, advisor of the Office of Planning Senior office of Senacyt.

The cooperation between the participating countries aims to exchange capacities, experiences, good practices, researchers and research results, among other things, in order to improve the resources available to the countries and direct CTI results to solve societal challenges. to mitigate void inclusion. He The project also includes holding a webinar sensitization and workshops, as well as creating input for the regional declaration for open and inclusive CTI.

Senacyt is an autonomous institution whose mission is to convert science and technology in tools for the sustainable development of Panama. Our projects and programs are aimed at promoting the scientific and technological development of the country and, in this way, eliminating the inequality gap and promoting equitable development that improves the quality of life of Panamanians.