Venezuela on LASF4RI: White Paper proposal

 

Executive summary

 

Please, for context, refer to the bullet points [1] and presentation [2] at the end of this text.

 

In the context of the call by the Latin American Strategy for Research Infrastructures (LASF4RI), the last 15th of November we had a meeting (https://indico.cern.ch/event/864418/) to discuss ideas and to design the first draft of a White Paper to be presented by Venezuela as a country (individual or group proposals are possible and welcome also). 

 

The outcomes of this meeting were:

 

• The Editor of the White Paper will be Prof. José López of the UCV, Caracas.
  • Guidelines for the White Paper inhttps://lasf4ri.org/guidelines/
  • Define the categories that will frame the proposal. And they are
    • High Energy Physics (HEP) theory
    • Astronomy and Astrophysics
    • Other: Capacity building
      • Leaving open the possibility of having two White Papers if the first edition is long enough that can be split in a consistent and non-redundant way.

 

• To request feedback, information and help to other key members of the Venezuelan scientific community, particularly those in the areas of
  • Nuclear and Medical Physics (José Antonio Lopez and Jorge Stephany will get in contact with the community)
  • Astronomy and Astrophysics (Luis Nunez and Reina Camacho will get in contact with this community)
  • Try that members/representatives of these two communities will participate in the next meeting

  Where the critical points to request to such parties are relative to

• • Integration of research projects and groups.
  • Project and ideas in the area of capacity building
  • The relevant history until nowadays

 

• We decided to have two + one meetings more to discuss the document and a final review before its submission.
  • November 22, 2019 at 20h00 CEST, 14h00 Colombia, 15h00 Venezuela
  • November 29, 2019 at 20h00 CEST, 14h00 Colombia, 15h00 Venezuela
  • Indico agenda and zoom connection will be circulated later

 

 

In general, the White Paper should contain/highlight:

 

• The construction of networks and to integrate more people into the communities.
• Highlight history, without spending much space on it, but highlight that expertise and boldness in creating new areas and improving existing ones. 
  • Mention of the installed capacity in the nation as a possible source of inclusion in proposals (regional, external, ...)
• Given the Venezuela situation we can not commit to any big project. But we can mention ongoing projects on capacity building, e.g. LA-CoNGA (others?) and our interest in supporting the Latin-American efforts within our capacity to continue creating networks and alliances
  • Inclusion of remote systems for training and eventually research, such as the data analysis coming from large experiments.
  • Applications in developing techniques and instrumentation that can be useful in industry and citizen science.
  • Objective and pragmatic integration in regional research proposals/experiments.
  • Create and maintain those links that, given a change of circumstances, will allow a feasible and perhaps quick recovery of the Venezuelan scientific community.
• Practical applications in terms of scientific computing, in medical physics and geophysics (nuclear physics). But should not spend much time on this, since this is known by the community reviewing the inputs.
• The contribution of postgraduate and research centres and their gear with multinational and regional projects.

The group of people presented in the meeting is fully committed to the preparation of such a proposal.

 

Moreover, an online document will be created to allow the constant review by all the relevant parties.

This document should be integrated into the Google Drive folder:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DHiKdf_EFUc-sUgrzNU4dpDx20pHgVIg

 

 

[1]

• Discussions for a Latin American Strategy for High Energy Physics and Cosmology started at the Simpósio Latino Americano de Física de Altas Energias (SILAFAE) in Guatemala in 2016.
• A Ministerial Declarationwas written at the III Ministerial Meeting of Science and Technology of Ibero-America held in October 2018 in Guatemala that included the need to further and support the scientific activities of researchers at existing infrastructures and the development of new ones. Through specific mechanisms such as the Latin American Strategy for Research Infrastructures (LASF4RI).
• Updates were reported in November in an open meeting at the 2018 SILAFAE in Peru.
• It was decided to organize a Workshop in São Paulo with the participation of funding agencies in the region to discuss further steps. That workshop took place this year in May.
• Agenda of the workshop: https://www.ictp-saifr.org/workshop-on-the-latin-american-strategy-forum-for-research-infrastructure/
• During that workshop, each country representatives presented the status of the High Energy Physics, Astro and Cosmology in the different countries.

[2] Here is the report from Venezuela: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1erTtaeF0lcEawoVrTAVevk_F03mtlQbhnMrtzJ1dvOA/

• Structure/organization:
  • A Preparatory Group was established to prepare the guidelines and receive white papers from the different efforts in High Energy Physics and Cosmology in the region
    • Reina and Arturo are members of this group.
  • A high-level Latin American Strategy Group that will provide recommendations and feedback to the Ministerial Meeting of Science and Technology of Ibero-America.
• It is a ~ two years process:
  • Next deadline: 1st of December to receive inputs from different institutions.
  • A final report from preparatory group to be delivered late spring 2020.
  • The vision is that the final roadmap will be ready by the next Ministerial meeting at the end of 2020.