The International Cooperation Agency (ACI) of the UNLP informs that the invitation to participate in the 2012 edition of the MERCOSUR Science and Technology Award will be opened until July 9. The central theme of the competition is “Technological Innovation in Health”. Papers, which may be submitted in Portuguese or Spanish, must be relevant and applicable to projects in the MERCOSUR.All papers by winners and nominees with special mention will be published. The theme proposal, “Technological Innovation in Health”, is linked to prevention, treatment, vaccine development, diagnostics, sanitary measures, as well as new biomedical and pharmaceutical technologies for diseases relevant to the region, etc. The MERCOSUR Science and Technology Award 2012 is organized by the UNESCO, and sponsored by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation of the Nation.
Candidates
National or resident students and researchers from the member and associated countries that are part of the MERCOSUR (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela).
Categories
- Scientific Initiation: high school student or a team of students younger than 21. Students may be guided by a teacher. Prize: USD 2,000.00
- University student: higher education student of no age limit. Students may be guided by a teacher. Prize: USD 3,500.00
- Young Researcher: researcher with complete graduate level courses, not older than 35. Prize: USD 5,000.00
- Integration: teams of graduated researchers of no age limit. Prize: USD 10,000.00
More information and rules:
http://eventos.unesco.org.br/premiomercosul
The MERCOSUR Young Researcher Award was created in 1998 by the MERCOSUR Science and Technology Specialized Meeting (RECyT). Until 2000, only young researchers were able to submit their works, and two invitations were opened: in 1998, the central theme being “Food”; and, in 2000, the central theme being “Environment – Clean Technologies”. On those two occasions, the model used by the RECyT consisted of awarding a prize per country, based on exclusive themes, terms, rules and criteria for that counrty, in order to give more opportunities to researchers in all the countries.
As from 2004, the Award was also promoted by the UNESCO, and it was called MERCOSUR Science and Technology Award. It included two categories: Young Researchers, not older than 35, and Integration, for a researchers’ team of no age limit, involving at least two member countries.
All editions have a different specific research topic: in 2004, Energy; in 2006, Technologies for Social Inclusion; in 2008, Biofuels; in 2009, Agro-industry; in 2010, Nanotechnology, and in 2011, the theme was Technologies for Sustainable Development.
MERCOSUR Awards 2012 aim to recognize and reward students, young researchers and research teams’ best works that contribute to the scientific and technological development of member and associated countries.
Likewise, they are intended to encourage scientific and technologic research applicable to projects in the MERCOSUR, and contribute to the regional integration process among member and associated countries by means of spreading information about science and technology projects and advances in the MERCOSUR.
