Venezuela on LASF4RI: White Paper proposal

Executive summary

(Any correction, feedback, welcome! Difficult to summarise so many voices :)

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 LASF4RI, the last 22nd of November we had a second meeting (https://indico.cern.ch/event/866335/) to discuss the progress of a White Paper to be presented by Venezuela as a country.

News! The new deadline for submission of White Papers in the December 15th. But, we already mentioned in the meeting this will be not a reason to slow down :)

The outcomes of this meeting were:

Create the Google document where to start to write:
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CglLxKoDQ9uvZdq_fooNmVcGgegkdHulcF6fqd504hw/
- I also add a folder for images. I think they are powerful ways to summarise ideas. The current images in the folder are those of the La-Conga.

We push to request feedback from key members of the Venezuelan scientific community, particularly those in the areas of
- Nuclear and Medical Physics (José Antonio López and Jorge Stephany will get in contact with the community)
- Astronomy and Astrophysics (Luis Núñez and Reina Camacho will get in contact with this community)
- Try once again that members/representatives of these two communities will participate in giving input to the proposal.

The proposition for the authorship of the White Paper is, once it has a good shape, to send a link back to the community so they can add themselves to the authors' list. This method is broadly used by scientific communities worldwide.

Regarding the content:

The three Categories remain the same.
The introduction will be mainly an extension of the presentation in Sao Paolo, May 2019.
On the subject of strengths as a community:
- Add competencies that the Venezuelan community offer.
- This community [3] is scattered in many different countries and scientific facilities/experiences.
- Competences like
  - Data Analysis in research
  - Software and instrumentation development in research
  - Project manager and extensive experience in capacity building
  - Much experience in training at the highest levels
  - Direct contact with other global scientific endeavours…

Any other point I missed?

Cheers,

Arturo

[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 Declaration was 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.

[3] A list of individuals with their own contacts, affiliations, research that...

- What objective / strategic interest does this community has. And that this LASF4RI initiative gives the opportunity to raise.
  - Allow us to position ourselves in cutting-edge instrumental areas not only from the point of view of the development of scientific experiments but also of the industry.
  - European reference of the value in terms of ROI of physics in society: https://sciencebusiness.net/physics-worth-more-eu-economy-retail-and-financial-services-says-study
- A community strongly linked to two key experiments: ATLAS and (I forgot the other …)
- Experiments where we can collaborate and / or already collaborate
- Scattered throughout the world but still a community. Something evident in the ATLAS experiment for more than 10 years