The Ministry of Education and Culture began a process of reflection and analysis aimed at a new institutional design for the Area of Science, Technology and Innovation. Its head, Pablo da Silveira, highlighted that, starting in March 2023, workshops will be held to generate a discussion agenda and identify opportunities for improvement and institutional or regulatory changes.
This Thursday the 1st, the public presentation was made before the main references of the science, technology and innovation sector, of four consulting studies. In addition, a schedule of workshops scheduled for the first semester of 2023 was proposed, which will analyze the results of the work and make recommendations.
In this context, it was decided to promote, with the support of the Unesco Office in Montevideo, an open discussion with the main players in the scientific community, business and government.
The Minister of Education and Culture, Pablo da Silveira; the resident coordinator of the United Nations system in Uruguay, Pablo Ruiz, and the director of the UNESCO Regional Office of Sciences for Latin America and the Caribbean, Ernesto Fernández Polcuch.
Da Silveira pointed out that this project originated in the Ministry of Education and aims to generate a broad discussion on the institutional reordering of science, technology and innovation activities in Uruguay.
He recalled that throughout history in our country, institutions and regulations were created that overlapped, so that currently they could be better ordered to obtain greater benefits. For this reason, this process will begin to see what improvements can be implemented in this area.
To this end, different consultancies were designed, and based on the results obtained, a broad set of participants representing public organizations, universities, private organizations with research components and research centers were convened, in order, together, to comply with an agenda The discussion that will begin in March 2023 is projected to end by the end of the first half of the year.
The Secretary of State said that the objective of this process is to identify opportunities for improvement, generate consensus on possible institutional or regulatory changes, and deal with an issue that he considered vital for the future of the country.
He added that a mapping of actors will be carried out to find out who are those who develop science and technology in Uruguay, what are the existing regulations and to what extent they favor or hinder the development of the sector and, on the other hand, study good practices outside borders .
For his part, Polcuch pointed out that this transformation is part of the 2020 Agenda of Unesco’s Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, he indicated that it is impossible to think of sustainable development without technology.
Ruiz, in his speech, said that the development of a country is built through dialogue and consultation, therefore, in order to design, execute and evaluate a public policy, a process of discussion and investigation is necessary, for this reason this initiative is so important. .
In addition, he recalled that this process is part of the United Nations cooperation plan with the Uruguayan Government, which seeks to enhance the country’s capacities.
