LIX General Assembly of SIRCIP

San Pablo de Heredia, Costa Rica, April 19, 2023

 In the facilities of the El Higuerón Campus in San Pablo de Heredia, at the National University of Costa Rica, the 59th General Assembly and Technical Commission for research and postgraduate studies of the Central American and Caribbean Regional System for Research and Postgraduate Studies -SIRCIP- are being held, with the purpose of to generate a meeting to contribute to the sustainable human development of the Central American region and the Caribbean through research, postgraduate and social projection.

SIRCIP is an organ of the Central American Confederation that strengthens, guides, supports, coordinates, harmonizes, and integrates research and postgraduate studies, with a regional focus on CSUCA member universities.

The Assembly began with words from Jorge Herrera Murillo, UNA Vice Chancellor for Research and President of SIRCIP, who mentioned ?We have a clear mission of generating innovative and relevant knowledge, we train professionals who are not only capable of relying on knowledge imparted in the classroom If not, that they can develop research and from this we provide feedback to the extension with the mission of transferring and democratizing the knowledge that we generate?

As for Carlos Alvarado, Secretary General of CSUCA, he expressed ?Open science as a new paradigm of scientific research, promotes collaboration, transparency and free access to research results, allowing to accelerate scientific progress and provide solutions to local and global problems?

For his part, Francisco González, Rector of the National University of Costa Rica -UNA- and President of CSUCA pointed out ?75 years of life of one of the organizations with the greatest longevity in terms of integration and collaboration of higher education, is the CSUCA, that has allowed the universities to be integrated and brought together so that we can fulfill the same mission and the same objective, a task that today more than ever is most valid?

The session was the scene of the conferences ?Open Science: importance, concepts, methods and strategies, advances and challenges? by Pilar Rico Castro, from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and ?University institutional perspective for the definition of research lines and priorities, the experience of the National University, Costa Rica? by Carlos Alberto Montero Corrales, representing UNA.

It is important to highlight that the 59th General Assembly of SIRCIP gives rise to the work of the permanent commissions by strategic objective, corresponding to program 2 of the Fifth Plan for the Regional Integration of Higher Education in Central America and the Dominican Republic -PIRESC V-, as well as to the election of titular and substitute representatives of the public universities of Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador, corresponding to the Accreditation Council of the Central American Postgraduate Accreditation Agency -ACAP-.

As well as the presentation of the Report of the SIRCIP presidency and presentation of the proposal "Regional Declaration of Open Science of the CSUCA", report of the General Secretariat of CSUCA, report of the technical research and postgraduate commission and the report of the National University Autonomous University of Nicaragua -UNAN Managua-, in order to publicize the progress in the organization and convocation of the VI Regional Meeting of research and postgraduate studies, to be held in the second semester of the current year.