PROPOSED U.S. - SOUTH AMERICA BIOINFORMATION CONFERENCE

UNCLAS BRASILIA 001122 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KSCA EAID SENV TBIO TSPL BR SUBJECT: PROPOSED U.S. - SOUTH AMERICA BIOINFORMATION CONFERENCE REF: STATE 77411 ¶1. (U) Post delivered points as requested to Paulo Rogerio Goncalves, Director of International Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology in Brazil regarding the U.S. proposal for a Brazil - South American Regional conference on Bioinformatics to be held in Brazil in November. Although Brazil's Minister for Science and Technology, Rezende, was traveling in Europe at the time, he received the proposal. Now that Minister Rezende has returned to Brazil, Post has received the following response. ¶2. (U) The Brazilians were excited by the proposal, but the issue of timing will be key. As you know the 14th Annual International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology will be held in Fortaleza, Brazil, August 6-10, 2006, and many of the U.S. and regional scientists attending might also be invited to the proposed U.S.-Brazil event. Minister Rezende's office is concerned that November might be too soon to expect these scientists to return again to Brazil. ¶3. They are offering three options: the first is to hold the U.S.-Brazil Regional conference on the margins of the Fortaleza event, although they admitted this option has drawbacks. The second is to hold in November a U.S.-Brazil bilateral conference. The third option is the hold the conference, as suggested by STAS, in March, 2007. ¶4. Post believes this conference holds exciting possibilities for both Brazil and the region looks forward to working with STAS on this endeavor. CHICOLA