Workshops October 2018 – March 2019

Institutions:  University of Cambridge and Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (+ a side event between Cambridge and UNSAM)

Subject area: Scientific and technological entrepreneurship

Synopsis: This workshop will shape scientists’ entrepreneurial mindset, will teach them how to create a successful technology start up, and how to manage a venture. It will also facilitate connections between UK-ARG scientists/entrepreneurs. It will provide information about successful policies and activities that make Cambridge one of the most successful entrepreneurial hubs. It will cover the importance of gender equality in entrepreneurship and debate ways to encourage more diversity. This is one of two reciprocal visits which aim to become a long-term partnership involving mobility of entrepreneurs, joint training courses, and/or a joint fellowship scheme between the University of Córdoba and the University of Cambridge.

Dates: 30 October - 5 November 2018

Institutions: University of Cambridge and Universidad Nacional de San Martín

Subject area: Prison education initiatives (Social Innovation and Inclusion)

Synopsis: The project is a collaboration between CUSAM at the Universidad Nacional de San Martin (UNSAM) in Argentina and ‘Learning Together’ at the University of Cambridge in the UK to advance global comparative knowledge about theory, policy, practice and evaluation methods in higher education partnerships between prisons and universities. A 3-day workshop will bring together academics, practitioners, policymakers and community actors to reflect comparatively on the individual, institutional and socially transformative potential of prison education initiatives in the UK and Argentina, at a time of increasing incarceration, exploring how the practice and research of learning partnerships can promote inclusion and safety.

Dates: 6 - 9 November 2018

Institutions: Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo (FADU), Universidad de Buenos Aires and University of Sheffield

Subject area: Environment and urban planning (Social Innovation and Inclusion)

Synopsis: This project examines the feasibility of green fences to mitigate air pollution in Buenos Aires and Sheffield. A series of capacity-building workshops will be organized to network across academia, the public sector and the third sector. The project builds on existing relationships and lays the foundation for future collaborative applications for research funding. UK academics will come to Buenos Aires to co-produce protocols and working relations, and assess several intervention sites pre-selected across the city’s disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Workshops will benefit members of the research network, green fence end users, and landscape architecture students from Facultad de Arquitectura Diseño y Urbanismo.

Dates: 12 - 16 November 2018

Institutions: Universidad Nacional de la Plata (UNLP) and University of Leeds

Subject area: Medical sciences and technology (Student employability and competitiveness)

Synopsis: This workshop is a platform to establish an interdisciplinary post-graduate program between the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and the University of Leeds, at the interface between medicine, physics, computer science, and engineering. This program, led by cutting-edge research at both institutions, will train the next generation of scientists and technologists that will enable ground-breaking scientific discoveries in biomedical sciences where physics, computer science, and engineering increasingly play a crucial role. The workshop will share the academic and scientific experiences and expertise; forge understanding of the strengths and opportunities, and appreciation of the academic differences and regulatory challenges to drive such collaboration forward.

Dates: 3 - 6 December 2018

Institutions:  Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (UTN) and University College London (UCL)

Subject area: Student employability and competitiveness

Synopsis: Employers complain that students are not ‘work ready’. Universities are censured for providing academic courses that do not meet employer demands. It is important that academics study what knowledge and skills their students require.

There are three relevant sources of information: labour market information (LMI); destinations of students, and strategic conversations with employers. This workshop will bring academics and employers together. UCL will share their research on the use of LMI to help form strategic skills partnerships, while UTN will demonstrate the use of Agile methodology/Agiles development Techniques to support this work, to improve progression and employer competitiveness.

Dates: 18 - 20 February 2019

Institutions: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes and University of Exeter

Subject area: Circular Economy (Social Innovation and Inclusion)

Synopsis: Looking beyond the current "take, make and dispose” extractive industrial model, the Circular Economy (CE) is restorative and regenerative by design. This collaboration focusses on strengthening the CE framework in Argentina. It aims to boost the generation and strengthening of local capacities for inclusive and sustainable development strategies, and to promote the formation of a network of key stakeholders around the CE approach. To achieve these goals, the project will link the leadership and experience accumulated by British researchers with key local stakeholders in Argentina, from the academic field, public and private sectors.

Dates: 12 - 14 March 2019

Institutions: Fundación Universidad Torcuato di Tella and Birkbeck, University of London

Subject area: Video essay (Student Employability and Competitiveness)

Synopsis: The workshop aims at examining the “video essay”, a short online video used to address issues and put forward arguments in an academic context, in the tradition of the “film essay”, a distinct form of reflective documentary cinema. A hands-on workshop on the video essay by one of the world’s leading practitioners -a first for Argentina- will be complemented with a reflection on the connections and differences between the video essay and the essay film. The outcoming project will include a proposal for training local instructors and filmmakers in the teaching and dissemination of the video essay as a tool for educational purposes, which could have profound implications.

Dates: 12 - 14 March 2019

More info.

Institutions:  Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco andAberystwyth University

Subject area: Environment and geography (Research & Development)

Synopsis: Desert rivers and wetlands are 'hotspots' of ecosystem services (ES), including water supply, flood control, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and tourism opportunities. In Patagonia’s deserts and worldwide, threats to river and wetland ES arise from human pressures (drainage, overgrazing) and projected climate changes that include greater hydrological variability (severe droughts, but also intense rainfalls and floods). Development of sustainable management practices to maintain, prioritise and optimise ES requires input from diverse disciplines. This proposal will facilitate exchange of ideas and good practice between UK and Argentine researchers, students and end-user communities to tackle fundamental environmental, economic and societal issues.

Dates: 11 - 14 March 2019

Lessons from the UK Ministry of Justice & Metropolitan Police

Institutions:  Universidad Austral and UCL, UK Ministry of Justice & Metropolitan Police

Subject area: Open Government (Social Innovation and Inclusion)

Synopsis: Open government is a key element of Argentina’s current development agenda. The Argentine Government has furthered the open government agenda as no other government before and the intention of having Argentina become a member of OECD is a great indicator of the country’s commitment to this issue. Open government will improve people’s trust in the institutions as well as their stability and performance. Among the worst performers in terms of people’s trust, we find the judiciary and the security forces (particularly the police). The UK Ministry of Justice and the Metropolitan Police have been on a long journey towards openness that has led them to a place in which they have become examples of institutions that are open. This has significantly helped to improve the public’s perception.

The main objectives of this workshop will be (i) Share best practices and lessons learned from the UK Ministry of Justice and Metropolitan Police, (ii) Build relationships and identify potential projects for collaboration, (iii) Position the UK as a world leader in Open Government. 

Stakeholders in Argentina will gain new perspectives and ideas on how to further this agenda and the possibility of collaborating with UK experts to deliver specific projects. This will contribute to strengthening the AR-UK relationship.

Dates: 18 – 20 February 2019

Photos

Community-based research with young people in a deprived urban area

Institutions:  UNSAM and Goldsmiths, University of London

Subject area: Community based research methods (Social Innovation and Inclusion)

Synopsis: This workshop will discuss and develop innovative community-based research methods through artistic, ethnographic, digital, and audio-visual practices with young people in a deprived urban area. It will focus on research interventions aimed at promoting social innovation and inclusion. The project will (a) provide the basis for the design of a project proposal to consolidate sustained collaboration between the UK and Argentine partners, both with extensive experience on this topic, and (b) offer a set of devices and practices for schools, NGOs and government, to identify and address significant factors that reproduce exclusion and inequality.

Dates: 11 – 14 March 2019