PRO-IDEAL PLUS – PROmotion of an Ict Dialogue between Europe and America Latina –
extension towards Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Costa Rica

PRO-IDEAL PLUS aims to strengthen the research dimension of Information Society policy dialogues in the target region, establishing a sustainable ICT research community and developing synergies. PRO-IDEAL PLUS will equally enhance the international cooperation of stakeholders within the target countries amongst themselves thus leveraging best practices e.g. from those countries that already enjoy an S&T agreement. It will do so by:

- organising ICT Fora in order to facilitate the introduction of ICT research dimension into the regular policy dialogues in parallel to EU-LAC S&T events. These ICT Fora are continued via the Virtual ICT Dialogue space on the PRO-IDEAL PLUS platform. Complementary Round Tables will allow for informal discussions with stakeholders.

- organising ICT Days with interactive workshops and coaching courses to stimulate, encourage and facilitate proactive participation of researchers in the ICT programme, based on the experience in the PRO-IDEAL project (www.pro-ideal.eu, involving AR, CL, BR, UY).

- fostering pro-active cooperation between PRO-IDEAL PLUS and other research initiatives e.g. e-science networks (e.g. RedCLARA, GEANT2), ICT networks (e.g. ALETI) other INCO-NET projects, but also bilateral initiatives such as UEMEXCYT II.

- drafting an ICT research Roadmap providing a shared insight and long-term visions for ICT cooperation

The above activities are carried out by an experienced partnership that has a proven track record in successful international projects: INMARK from Spain will co-ordinate the consortium; the European Multimedia Forum disposes of the network in the ICT sector and takes care of the dissemination strategy as well as the Web 2.0 tool; the partners in the target countries will act as “hub” implementing the project activities at local level.