5th Seminars of Advanced Studies on Molecular Design and Bioinformatics, Havana, Cuba, February 2 - 6, 2004. The support is to provide a limited amount of fellowships for Latin-American attendants to cover their basic living expenses in Havana, to grant the infrastructure for practical sessions with personal computers, and to cover organizational expenses. This meeting is covering: a) "in silico" modelling of biomolecules and their environment; b) drug design; c) artificial intelligence for data mining for bioinformatics, among other related aspects, like the theoretical and software tools.

The success and failure of initiatives tackling the infrastructural gap in most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are closely related to trends across a region where poverty affects one in every three households and informality is the norm for 57 per cent of the working population (UN-Habitat 2016, 55). Informality itself constitutes a challenge as seen in the reluctance of authorities to invest in areas which, by virtue of not being recognised as legal, fall into a void which neither attracts public investment nor does it encourage entrepreneurs or cooperatives to seek localised relevant solutions. The contrast between Colombia and Cuba provides a unique opportunity to understand the additional challenges that areas in transition - to peace, in the former, and to a new constitution, in the latter - pose to informality and will contribute to developing the kinds of approaches through which these challenges can be addressed more effectively. Building on well-developed partnerships and the learning of several RCUK-funded projects, GREAT will generate real change in two informal off-grid settlements in Cali (Colombia) and Havana (Cuba). Focusing on transport and waste-management community-led projects, the project will contribute to 'gridding' equitable urban futures through a series of three thematic PublicLabs on urban policy, mobility, and waste innovation. These will combine several in-site activities, participatory workshops, seed-funded projects, capacity training, and work with local policy and planning authorities as well as charitable organisations. Joining the expertise of environmental scientists, transport and geomatics engineers, designers, urban planners, entrepreneurs and sociologists, the project will address key SDGs (5, 6, 9, 10, 11 and 16), by embedding the voice of residents of these settlements into ongoing initiatives such as the Territories of Inclusion and Opportunities, an initiative of the Cali Mayor's Office, and the vision of transport in Havana in 2035, approved in 2003, and led by the Dirección General de Transporte Provincial La Habana (General Directorate of Transport Havana). Both institutions are project partners. In doing so, we seek to answer two main questions: In what ways does being on- and off-grid provide an opportunity to rethink the relationship between people and urban infrastructure in areas of transition? To what extent do current off-grid policies and initiatives in Cali and Havana contribute to the disenfranchisement or empowerment of residents in informal settlements? If funded, the project will transform our understanding of the relationship between urban infrastructure and the dynamics of growth and change of informal settlements in areas of transition and provide unique learning points to help address important barriers residents of informal settlements face to improve their livelihoods, in Colombia and Cuba, and across Latin America and the Caribbean.

"This Project aims to offer the tools for creating a Contemporary Art educational network in the region Yucatán-Cuba. It also aspires to help to shape two specific and parallel degrees (in Mérida an La Habana), or ideally an International Double Degree, on Contemporary Art and Cultures Management that will be taught in parallel in Mexico and Cuba using the new tools that of e-teaching and e-learning.We propose the development of a work process between American and European universities, with the support of independent professionals, experts from the museums, cultural management field, and civil society groups. We assume, as a starting point, the concept of ""multilateral construction"", for the joint design of two specialized study plans, one for the UADY University of Merida and the other for the ISA University of Havana, with the intention that they can be merged into one."

EU projects in the region are recognised by leading world organisations and by the local partners, as being impactful and standing as reasons for hope to growth and development. Through cross-fertilization, EU can reinforce its footprint in the higher education systems in the region. Panama is a small and dynamic country receptive to modernisation, and willing to introduce a regional approach. Involving Cuba - isolated so many years - is an important step towards integrating the higher education on the island in a regional context. The Cuban Ministry of Higher Education is a partner in the project and is willing to promote a comprehensive introduction of higher education internationalisation in the country.To achieve concrete results and avoid opportunistic behaviours with uncertain long-term benefits, universities need to engage in a structured internationalisation process.FORINT aims to integrate the international dimension into the teaching, research and service functions of Cuban and Panamanian higher education system, and to strengthen the universities' capacities for education and research and improve their academic quality and standards. The project will use a comprehensive methodology directed at the target audiences of universities ( faculty, administrators and students), addressing a full spectrum of internationalisation objectives, including raising awareness, increasing the visibility of institutions within the region and establishment of international contact points in each partner university.Measurable results will be achieved during the lifetime of the project, visible as concrete international partnerships enabled by the partners’ participation in international and regional conferences.The outcomes of the projects will be turned into guidelines accessible to all institutions in the region willing to replicate the process. The FORINT portal will extend the impact of the project beyond its lifetime, facilitating international cooperation.

In the last decade internationalisation has become a primary component in the strategy of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to meet their goals and institutional missions. These changes have been reshaping gradually the processes and models traditionally followed by universities to interact and cooperate internationally. In the case of Latin American (LA), despite some progress, many obstacles to a more coherent and cohesive international interventions are identified. One of the key problems, widely found among their institutions, is related to the lack of professionalism of their International Relation Offices (IROs). Despite the heterogeneity among LA HEIs, a common picture in many universities is still the following: poor implementation of internationalisation strategies, lack of autonomy in decision-making processes, poor prioritisation of the staffs in charge of internationalisation within the governing bodies or lack of project management culture to conduct international actions. As a consequence, internationalisation in the region remains spontaneous, reactive, widely implemented in individual bases and without a comprehensive and integrated vision of all the key activities of their mission.Taking this into account, the project aims to contribute to improving the management culture on internationalisation of HEIs in LA through the following results:I) Development a comprehensive training program aimed at professionals of the IROs of LA HEIs.II) Development benchmarking and comparative studies to identify the main characteristics of the internationalisation processes in LA in order to formulate adequate and tailor-made policies and actions.III) Development of a Guide on Internationalisation Management for HEIs that can serve as a model for the creation and improvement of IROs in LA HEIs.IV) Enabling a specialised service to assist HEI in the implementation of their policies/strategies of internationalisation and international cooperation.