II Academic and Knowledge Summit of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean (UE-CELAC)

The II Academic and Knowledge Summit will take place in Santiago de Compostela on May 4 and 5, 2023 and will gather at the Cidade da Cultura participants from Latin American, Caribbean and European universities, as well as institutional and political authorities from both regions and representatives of civil society. The II Summit will provide continuity to the open dialogue process for the construction of a bi-regional space in higher education, science, technology and innovation initiated at the I Summit held in El Salvador in 2017.

The main objective of the II UE-CELAC Summit is to promote the construction of a common Euro-Latin American and Caribbean space for higher education, science, technology and innovation through the generation of knowledge, the design of common lines of action, the establishment of alliances and stable promotion capacities, integration and bi-regional strategic cooperation – all in the context of transforming higher education, thus contributing to the development of the UE-CELAC Action Plan agreed by the Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Brussels in 2015, in particular Chapters I and IX.

The Summit is organized around the following specific objectives:

• Design strategies and instruments that promote the creation of a common Euro-Latin American and Caribbean space for higher education, science, technology and innovation and the exchange of knowledge.
• Influence the formulation of public policies, plans and national programmes through the creation of discussion spaces, the drafting of science-based proposals and the link between academia and the environment.
• Guide academic action and the generation of knowledge towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda.

The Summit is structured in keynote speeches and round tables, organized in plenary sessions and parallel thematic sessions that will revolve around three thematic axes:

1. The digital transformation of higher education: Current state, challenges and opportunities.
2. Knowledge for development and sustainability: Science, technology and innovation.
3. Academic cooperation: Building the Euro-Latin American and Caribbean Higher Education Space from the perspective of solidarity-based internationalization.

Participants will include, among others: Josep Maria Garrell, President-elect of the European University Association – USA; Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director General for Education of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO; Maria Cristina Russo. Assistant Director-General for Education of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO; Maria Cristina Russo. Director of Cooperation at the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission; Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida. Rector of the Federal University of Minas Gerais; President of the Association of Universities of the Montevideo Group – AUGM; Rector of AUGM and President of the International Relations Commission of ANDIFES, Brazil; and Francesc Pedró. Director of the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean – IESALC-UNESCO, who will speak on May 4, from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm.