Europe-Latin America bi-regional university association and leadership conference held in Sao Paulo (11-14 November 2012)

EUA and its partners of the ALFA PUENTES project welcomed over 200 participants to the first bi-regional university association conference ‘Innovative Strategies for Higher Education in Latin America and Europe: International Collaboration and Regional Development’ in São Paulo, Brazil, a major research and innovation hub of Latin America. The event, held from 11 to 14 November, targeted university leadership from both regions.
The conference addressed a broad range of issues related to higher education and research collaboration between Latin America and Europe, among them academic mobility, international collaboration in quality assurance, and doctoral education. The development and implementation of grant programmes has also been featured, in particular the example of the Brazilian Science without Borders programme. The participants discussed the potential added value of such schemes in laying ground for multinational research and education partnerships between institutions of both regions. It was proposed that on the European side, such schemes could be implemented by university consortia from different European countries, as practiced already under Erasmus Mundus, which would allow to pool research and training capacities and enable researchers and students to undertake research and study stays in several countries.
The conference conclusions included the following (a report will soon be made available on the EUA website and the ALFA PUENTES website):

• The need to enhance the possibilities for collaborative research between Latin America and Europe through support for research partnerships that include two-way exchanges of researchers at all stages. This should be linked to existing initiatives and networks.
• The interest in exploring innovative approaches to link cooperation and mobility grants through consortia composed of universities from different countries of both regions. This is already encouraged by some EU partnership programmes, but should be further developed in Latin America (LA) and between LA and Europe.
• In this framework, to put a strong focus on the careers of young researchers (postdoc, doctoral candidates, but also Master’s students) through joint degrees or collaborative delivery of programmes, joint labs and industry partnerships.
• To ensure a continued framework for university association dialogue in and between both regions. To continue to share European and Latin American experiences in regional integration in higher education, particularly in quality assurance, teaching and learning reform and mobility enhancement.

In addition to the main conference proceedings, a pre-conference meeting of European and Latin American leaders of associations outlined a number of themes for future dialogue and cooperation. This meeting was attended by EUA and nine of its university association members (national rectors’ conferences) as well as 15 national Latin American university associations, the Central American University Council (CSUCA), the Andean University Council (CONSUAN).
A second bi-regional association conference will be held in December 2013, and will be announced shortly. The event was hosted by the four Paulista universities (UNESP, USP, UNICAMP and UFSCar), all members of the Grupo Montevideo of Universities, which is a partner and regional coordinator in the ALFA-PUENTES project. The ALFA PUENTES project is led by the European University Association, in collaboration with 22 national and regional university associations of LA and Europe. The project puts a strong focus on internationalisation and Latin American regional integration, and explores the specific role of universities associations in this regard. It is co-funded by the European Union Alfa Programme. For further information on the project and the conference: www.alfapuentes.org.