La Reference, RedCLARA and the Research Data Alliance of the United States (RDA-US) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that formalizes their relationship. The three organizations **will seek to establish implementation principles in an open, consensual, inclusive and harmonious manner to build a social and technical infrastructure that allows the open exchange and reuse of research data between regions, in order to improve communication, facilitate the exchange of resources and technical capabilities.

Rebecca Koskela, executive director of RDA United States, considered that this alliance will allow Spanish-speaking people to have access to the knowledge that has been generated about access to data: “We are very happy to have this memorandum. Having more countries and more people from Latin America and even Spanish-speaking countries in Europe is a very good thing for the RDA. Being able to translate the materials into different languages ​​will make it more accessible to more people.”

In addition, he noted the purpose of working together with LA Referencia: “Convincing policy makers about the importance, access and sharing of open data is the entire purpose of the RDA, we will work together on this.”

For her part, Bianca Amaro, president of LA Referencia, pointed out the importance of this joint work: “This signature is very important for the Latin American region, and I dare say that it is equally important for each of the organizations that sign it, we will work together. We have a lot of work to do.”

Finally, Luis Eliécer Cadenas, Executive Director of RedCLARA, commented on the need for unions like these to remain for a long time: “I agree with Bianca and Rebecca on the relevance of open data and the values ​​related to open science. I consider that this is the beginning of a lasting relationship. I am happy to see that LA Referencia is close to these initiatives and is helping us develop these capacities to manage data correctly and, thus, that Latin American countries can benefit from this.”

Among the lines of action of this memorandum are the promotion of events and training on research data, the development of policies, capabilities and interoperability requirements, as well as the creation of interest and work groups to address issues related to data.