The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Jorge Elustondo, together with the president of the Scientific Research Commission (CIC), Alberto Torres, the Coordinating Director of the National Library of Congress, Alejandro Santa, and the undersecretary of Knowledge Management and Dissemination, Mateo Niro, inaugurated the Conference “Knowledge and Public Policies. Consolidate Links, integrate Voices ”. The meeting took place in the Auditorium of the Cultural Space of the Library of the National Congress and was organized by the Research Institute on Knowledge and Public Policies (CPP), a research center recently created by the CIC.
The meeting was aimed at researchers, officials, representatives of the political field and the general public. In this context, Minister Jorge Elustondo said that “since we assumed, together with our team, we evaluate and ponder all the scientific capital and the installed capacities that there were and that are in the Province with the objective of building institutionality.” He also added that “conferences like this state that the decision of Governor María Eugenia Vidal to put science and knowledge in a leading place was right.”
For his part, the president of the CIC, Alberto Torres, stressed that “we went from 22 to almost 100 research centers between our own and associates.” He also affirmed that “one of the shortcomings we found was the link between the production of knowledge and the political sector, with the decision makers” and continued: “based on this concern, the Research Institute on Knowledge and Public Policies was created that today they organize these conferences, and through which, through the scientific method, they will try to link the areas of knowledge with the political sector, be it municipal, provincial or national ”.
For his part, the director Santa said that “I thank Minister Elustondo and his entire team for this day that demonstrates the preponderant place of science and knowledge in the country.”
The inaugural conference was given by Lidia Brito, director of the UNESCO Regional Office of Science for Latin America and the Caribbean, who spoke on “The link between science and public policies in the light of the Sustainable Development Goals”. Later, in the Panel “Knowledge, Planning and Political Decision: a bridge through dialogue and institutions”, Brenda Austin, deputy and vice president of the Commission of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation of the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation; Javier Gastón, Mayor of Chascomús and Osvaldo Agamennoni, member of the board of the CIC and director of the Laboratory of Development in Cognitive Neurosciences. The exhibitions continued until 6pm.
It should be noted that the conference aimed to share perspectives on the importance of strengthening the link between knowledge production and the field of public policies. It is a joint work between the MCTI, the Research Institute on Knowledge and Public Policies, belonging to the CIC; the Library of the National Congress and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).