ICSU ROLAC held its 22nd Regional Committee Meeting. The meeting was held on September 26-27, 2017 at ICSU ROLAC facilities in San Salvador, El Salvador. The meeting had seven members in attendance: Dr. Juan Jaen, Dr. Liliam Alvarez, M.Sc. Ana Rada, Dr. Paloma Gonzalez; Dr. German Poveda, Dr. Kit Fai Pun, and Dr. Ernesto Marinero. The following ICSU ROLAC Secretariat members were also participants in the meeting: Dr. Manuel Limonta, Licda. Claudia Marroquin, Licda. Karla Rodríguez and Lic. Oscar Reyes. In addition to the aforementioned attendees, well-known experts were invited to the meeting: Dr. Erlinda Hándal, Vice minister of Science and Technology of El Salvador; Dr. María Isabel Rodriguez, former vice minister of health, and current advisor to the presidency of El Salvador; Dr. Juan Vela, member of ICSU Scientific Committee on Urban Health; Dr. Luis Shequer, new president of the National Academy of Science of Dominican Republic; Dr. Hazel G.S. Marinero, from the Global Engineering Programs at Purdue University. It was also possible to have online communication with Dr. Simon Hudson, from CODATA; Dr. Carlos Abeledo, from INGSA; and Dr. Salvador Moncada from the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute.
In the morning of the first day of the meeting participants of the Regional Committee and guests were welcomed, and then the agenda of the meeting was adopted and approved without major changes. Then, Dr. Ernesto Marinero, from Purdue University, was welcomed as a new member of the Regional Committee. Soon after this, Dr. Manuel Limonta presented to the attendees about the evolution of the ICSU ROLAC in El Salvador, the work done in the priority areas and outreach activities from the April 2017- September 2017 period. While Dr. Limonta’s presentation, members of the regional committee were able to address questions to the presenter, and discuss further into details when necessary. Then, minutes and list of decisions of the previous meeting were approved (RCLAC21), and a draft business plan for 2018 was presented and discussed. Later, in the afternoon, the members of the Regional Committee could discuss about issues such as fundraising, overlooking responsivities distributed between the members of the Regional Committee. Finally, by the end of the day, it was possible to have an online meeting with Lara Cowen in which INGSA past, present and future initiatives were discussed.
Day two of the meeting began with an online meeting with Simon Hudson, from CODATA, who presented about Open Data, past, present and future steps in the LAC region. Then, the Committee discussed about ICSU’s General Assembly. After this point, the Administrative Officer and Communications Offer presented their reports to the Committee. Later on, the Committee could hear Dr. Salvador Moncada talk about the Scientific Diaspora in region, topic recently adopted as a priority area in the ROLAC office. Later, the members of the Regional Committee were able to go over the list of agreements, give recommendations arisen from the general discussion, agree on place and date of the RCLAC23. Finally, the chair, Juan Jaen and Manuel Limonta wrapped up the meeting by thanking all attendees.