IYCr2014 Latin America Summit Declaration

The IYCr2014 Latin America Summit Declaration took the form of an Appeal letter, with 67 signatories, addressed to the President of the IUCr, Prof Marv Hackert and to the Regional Director of UNESCO, Prof Lidia Brito. This letter is published below.

Initial signatories of the Summit Declaration. Seated at table (from left): Carlos Aguilar, Adriana Rojas, Richard Garratt, Alejandro Buschiazzo, Raul Padron, Alejandro Vila. Standing: Marvin Hackert (left) and Samar Hasnain (right).

Appeal 

24th September, 2014

Prof. Marvin Hackert
President, International Union of Crystallography

Prof. Lidia Brito
Regional Director, UNESCO

Dear Colleagues

We are pleased to report that the IYCr Latin America Summit Meeting on Biological Crystallography in Campinas, Brazil during September 22-24, 2014, has provided us an opportunity to extensively discuss and review the status of education and research in X-ray diffraction sciences in various countries in the region.

Over 100 senior researchers, early career researchers, post-doctoral fellows and students from 12 countries have participated in the event including a number of well established scientists in the North (Europe and USA) with origins in the region. The reflections from these scientists regarding the level of regional collaboration indicated that this is clearly sub-optimal, suggesting the need to take immediate action.

Many of us were engaged in extensive discussions focusing on the promotion of regional and international cooperation in the field of X-ray crystallography and complementary methods, in line with the objectives of the International Year of Crystallography.  These discussions were consistent with recent efforts leading to the founding of the Latin American Crystallographic Association (LACA).  The venue, being the home of the first synchrotron light source in the southern hemisphere, was fitting, and served also to highlight the ambitions of the region in constructing one of the world's most sophisticated, 4th generation light source, Sirius, before the end of the decade.

Through this letter, we request the IUCr and UNESCO to initiate actions to promote regional scientific collaboration including the holding of training workshops, encouraging the mobility of researchers within the region, promoting joint research projects, leveraging national bodies and institutions for financial support and facilitating regional conferences on the subject of X-ray crystallography and its applications in Latin America. 

We also request the IUCr to facilitate the establishment of a "Latin American IYCr Cooperation Fund". We, as a community representative of our region, commit to persuade our academies, funding agencies and/or governments to provide annual contributions which are commensurate with each country’s economic reality. Our aim is to raise US $100K per annum for this fund. We request IUCr to provide encouragement by making an initial commitment of US $20K per annum for 3 years. We request IUCr/UNESCO to manage these funds.

The funds will be used for a variety of actions including: 

1. increasing collaboration and cooperation among scientists of the region,
2. providing seed money for up to 2 projects per annum involving a minimum of 2 countries in the region, at least one of which should be well established in crystallography
3. funding for short term visits (up to 3 months), primarily aimed towards an  Early Career Researcher, 
4. training workshops at centres of excellence or emerging centres in the region, 
5. enabling the sharing of facilities within the region.