This Wednesday, October 21, Spain joined as a new member of LA Reference, the Latin American network that has associated countries working for Open Science. The accession agreement was signed through a virtual conference by Cecilia Cabello, director of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), Bianca Amaro, president of LA Reference and Luis Eliécer Cadenas, executive director of RedCLARA.

In this way, Latin America and Spain consolidate, now in the field of Open Science, their historical tradition in scientific and technological collaboration, an aspect that promotes accessibility and generation of ideas aimed at uniting different visions in a common front for Open Science.

Bianca Amaro, president of LA Reference, explained the importance of this agreement for the network. “The union of a country like Spain is a very big advance, both for LA Reference and for itself. The incorporation of a new country is very important because, because we strengthen what we do within the network, it is the strength of Spanish-speaking science”, Amaro pointed out.

For his part, Luis Eliécer Cadenas, executive director of RedCLARA, pointed out the collaboration processes that have united Latin America with Spain, as well as the need to continue paving the way in these areas. “This alliance is very significant because RedCLARA and the national education networks have a very important history of cooperation with Spain and Europe. We are structuring a network of support and collaborations that, eventually, can increasingly put science and investments in education and scientific advance at the service and support of the economic development of Latin America and at a global level,” Cadenas stressed.

The director of the FECYT, Cecilia Cabello, showed her enthusiasm for Spain’s incorporation into the efforts carried out by LA Reference in the field of science and open access. “Today is a great day for the FECYT, but above all for the Spanish science and technology system. RECOLECTA has become a key tool for fulfilling the national mandate of open access, as well as a key part of the initiatives we have on the topic of open science. The signing of this agreement places us internationally in a strategic position that will bring enormous benefits. This alliance will strengthen the relationship between Spain and Latin America and strengthen the visions of open access and open science in a much broader geographical space”, commented Cabello.

Cecilia Cabello took advantage of the space to mention the possibilities that this incorporation opens up for Spanish-speaking countries: “this union with Ibero-American countries contributes to FECYT’s institutional commitment to strengthening science in Spanish, since it will exponentially increase the visibility of Spanish science collected in RECOLECTA.”

Bianca Amaro, for her part, ended the agreement signing event by recalling the importance of this incorporation: “now we are one working for the scientific development of our countries, together we are stronger. I believe that progress, development and the great achievements that we can achieve together are now at our disposal.”

Spain adds to LA Reference its national aggregator, RECOLECTA, whose objectives are to promote and coordinate Spain’s national infrastructure of open access digital scientific repositories and guarantee that they are interoperable according to the standards of the world community; promote, support and facilitate the adoption of open access by all researchers at Spanish universities and R&D centers and give greater national and international visibility to the results of the research carried out in the European country.