CLACSO in the II Commission for the Promotion, Development and Development
On June 3, the event was held in Mexico City, in a hybrid format. II Commission for the Promotion, Development and Development of the Ibero-American Cooperation Agenda in Science, Technology and Innovation, space promoted by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the Spanish Pro Tempore Secretariat to follow up on the agreements adopted by the VI Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities of Science, Technology and Innovation and by the I Joint Ibero-American Ministerial Conference on Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, held in Valencia in 2024.
The meeting brought together government representatives from the member countries of the Commission, international organizations, specialized agencies and academic institutions convened to contribute to the development of the Ibero-American agenda in science, technology and innovation.
In representation of CLACSO Its CEO participated, Pablo Vommaro, who participated in the panel dedicated to recommendations on scientific evaluation, publication and multilingualism, along with representatives from Latindex and the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI).
Scientific evaluation, publication and multilingualism: a common agenda
During your speech, Vommaro He argued that scientific evaluation, academic publishing systems, and multilingualism are inseparable dimensions of the same discussion about the forms of production, circulation, and valuation of knowledge.
In that context, he highlighted the need to move towards broader, more responsible and contextualized evaluation models, capable of recognizing the diversity of formats, languages, disciplines and contributions that characterize the scientific systems of Ibero-America.
He also pointed out that many of the evaluation mechanisms currently in place continue to prioritize bibliometric indicators and commercial databases that often measure international visibility rather than scientific relevance, social relevance, or contribution to the development of societies.
The Ibero-American contribution to open science
One of the central themes of the intervention was dedicated to highlighting the pioneering role of Latin America and the Caribbean in building open and non-commercial infrastructures for scientific communication.
Pablo Vommaro He emphasized that initiatives such as CLACSO, Latindex, SciELO, Redalyc, LA Referencia and numerous university networks constitute one of the region's main contributions to the global governance of science, having demonstrated that it is possible to guarantee open access to knowledge from cooperative, public and non-profit models.
In this regard, he celebrated the development of the Ibero-American Digital Atlas of Knowledge, promoted by SEGIB, and noted that this tool can become a strategic infrastructure to strengthen the Ibero-American Knowledge Space, make regional scientific capabilities visible, promote academic cooperation and develop indicators in accordance with the priorities and characteristics of the region's scientific systems.
Multilingualism, bibliodiversity and epistemic justice
Another topic addressed was the need to strengthen Spanish and Portuguese as languages of scientific communication, while promoting a broader conception of multilingualism.
In this context, the principles of the Bogotá Manifesto on scientific evaluation and open science were recovered, highlighting that languages are not only tools of communication, but also bearers of intellectual traditions, historical experiences and diverse perspectives on the world.
The intervention emphasized that an open and inclusive science requires recognizing bibliodiversity, promoting the circulation of knowledge in multiple languages, and preventing evaluation policies from reproducing linguistic hierarchies that end up becoming epistemic hierarchies as well.
CLACSO and the construction of a regional agenda on evaluation, open science and multilingualism
CLACSO's participation in this high-level dialogue space reflects the recognition achieved by the institution in international debates on scientific evaluation, open science, bibliodiversity and the democratization of knowledge.
Over the past few decades, CLACSO has actively contributed to building regional open access infrastructures, strengthening the public circulation of knowledge, and advocating for non-commercial models of scientific communication. This trajectory has deepened in recent years through the creation of the Latin American Forum on Scientific Evaluation (FOLEC), an initiative aimed at promoting more responsible, inclusive evaluation approaches that are in line with the realities of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Through FOLEC, CLACSO has promoted research, training, political dialogue and regional articulation processes that have contributed to placing issues such as the reform of scientific evaluation, bibliodiversity, multilingualism, non-commercial open science and the need to strengthen public and cooperative infrastructures for the production and circulation of knowledge on the international agenda.
CLACSO's presence at this meeting also expresses recognition of the contributions made by Ibero-American academic communities in building alternatives to the dominant models of scientific evaluation and publication. Many of the discussions that now form part of the regional agenda on open science, responsible metrics, linguistic diversity, and knowledge visibility have been driven for years by universities, research centers, academic networks, and cooperation initiatives in which CLACSO actively participates.
In this sense, CLACSO's participation in the Commission constitutes an opportunity to strengthen the dialogue between scientific communities, academic institutions and the bodies responsible for public policies on science, technology and innovation, contributing to the construction of a more democratic, diverse, inclusive Ibero-American Knowledge Space oriented towards the common good.
